UnrequitedHope comments on Open Thread, Feb. 2 - Feb 8, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion
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How would you respond if I said I'm a rationalist, however I don't feel a strong motivation to make the world a better place?
To be clear, I do recognize making the world a better place a good thing, I just don't feel much intrinsic motivation to actually do it.
I guess in part it's because I expect genuinely trying to improve things (rather than making a token effort) to be a rather difficult and thankless task.
Also, as far as I can tell, my psychological makeup is such that feeling, thinking or being told that I'm "obligated" to do something actually decreases my motivation. So the idea that "I'm supposed do that because it's the ethical thing to do" doesn't work for me either.
I do like the idea of making the world a better place as long as I can do that while doing something that inspires me or that I feel good about doing. Part of the reason, I think, is that I don't see myself being able to do something I really don't enjoy for long enough that it produces meaningful results. So in order for it work, it pretty much has to be something I actually like doing.
In the end, I estimate that I'm more likely to accomplish things with social benefit if I focus on my own needs and wait until I feel inspired to do something for others (or until there's an overlap between meeting my needs and doing things for others), rather than trying to force an intention to do things for others (and then feel I'm not being honest with myself and that I don't actually have that intention).
I don't know how to feel about that.
If I were to take a reductionalist approach, what's the connection between rationality and making the world a better place.
I understand that a rationalist can potentially have any kind of goals, not necessary altruistic ones.
The reason for bringing this up is that I want to see if this kind of topic can be discussed here on LW, at all. And me being an (aspiring) rationalist is very relevant information to this.
Asking questions is one of the most rational things you can do. So screw "LessWrong". If some people aren't willing to discuss an issue with you like adults then you can't really call them rational. They should just quit to a photography blog or something.