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jsteinhardt comments on Why I Am Not a Rationalist, or, why several of my friends warned me that this is a cult - Less Wrong Discussion
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I find this presumption (that the most likely cause for disagreement is that someone misunderstood you) to be somewhat abrasive, and certainly unproductive (sorry for picking on you in particular, my intent is to criticize a general attitude that I've seen across the rationalist community and this thread seems like an appropriate place). You should consider the possibility that Algernoq has a relatively good understanding of this community and that his criticisms are fundamentally valid or at least partially valid. Surely that is the stance that offers greater opportunity for learning, at the very least.
I certainly considered that possibility and then rejected it. (If there are more 2 regular commenters here who think that rationality guarantees correctness and will solve all of their lives problems, I will buy a hat and then eat it).
Whether rationality guarantees correctness depends on how one defines "rationality" and "correctness". Perfect rationality, by most definitions, would guarantee correctness of process. But one aspect of humans' irrationality is that they tend to focus on results, and think of something as "wrong" simply because a different strategy would have been superior in a particular case.
When you believe ~A and someone says 'You believe A', what else is there? From most generous to least:
I misspoke, or I misunderstood your saying something else as saying I believe A.
You misheard me, or misspoke when saying that I believe A.
You're arguing in bad faith
Note that 'I actually secretly believe A' is not on the list, so it seems to me that Villiam was being as generous as possible.