Group Rationality Diary, May 1-15

therufs

This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for May 1-15.

It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:

Established a useful new habit

Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief

Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations

Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior

Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something

Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life

Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you

Tried doing any of the above and failed

Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.

Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating!

Next diary: May 16-31

Immediate past diary: April 15-30

Rationality Diaries archive

This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for May 1-15.

It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:

Established a useful new habit

Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief

Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations

Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior

Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something

Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life

Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you

Tried doing any of the above and failed

Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.

Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating!

Next diary: May 16-31

Immediate past diary: April 15-30

Rationality Diaries archive

I've made a moderately bold decision that I haven't started to regret yet: I'm going to read an undergrad textbook on every subject I claim to be interested in. My main hope for this is mapping out my own ignorance. It's extremely annoying when armchair-experts talk erroneously about subjects from a position of imaginary authority, and I don't wish to be one of those people. It should produce a useful line of demarcation: if I haven't read an undergrad textbook in a subject, I'm definitely unqualified to say what that subject does and does not contain.

If nothing else, it will at least teach me what I'm genuinely interested in, and what I only claim to be interested in.

(Also, yes, I've seen Luke's best-textbooks-on-every-subject post from two years ago.)

I'm going to read an undergrad textbook on every subject I claim to be interested in.

You've inspired me to do the same. :)

2davidkatz13y

The quickest solution is probably to not speak from a position of authority, or to practice adjusting our style of speech to match our actual level of authority. Also, usually the annoying part about people who "speak with authority" is the arrogance, not the confidence. One can be confident without being arrogant, and one can (surprisingly) be arrogant without being confident.

8A1987dM13y

I've achieved that mostly by reducing the number of fields I claim to be interested in, rather than by increasing the number of textbooks that I read.