Viliam comments on What Exactly Do We Mean By "Rationality"? - Less Wrong Discussion
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Not really. First, you criticize the definition for - well, being too short and broad and ill-defined. If we had a complete definition of rationality, we'd be done with creating AI. That is, by and large, what this site is all about - trying to arrive at a complete definition.
As far as I can tell, no, such approaches just make irrational people irrational in a more sophisticated way. Most people don't have the flexibility of self to actually -change- those aspects of themselves that are irrational, they just bury them under increasingly complex rationality models that do nothing but make their rationalizations sound more rational, and anything like calling people on their rationalizations falls into some area of mindkilling or another.
Yes. Either develop a healthy ego, or end your ego. If being wrong feels like failure, your failure is deeper than being wrong. If you can be made to feel like a fool, you are a fool regardless of how you feel. To take this out of deep wisdom, there are two fundamental concepts here: First, stop caring what other people think, particularly, for the Less Wrong crowd, about how rational (which is, after all, merely a proxy for intelligent) you are.
Second, stop caring so much about being less wrong than other people. You're just stoking the fires of an unhealthy ego, which makes it difficult for you to actually admit how wrong you are, and thus ends in you -failing- to become less wrong.
This website, for many people, is just a way of filling a void in their sense of self-worth, through an addiction to insight, to revelation, to that awe-inspiring feeling of getting smarter, of understanding the universe just a little bit better - without ever actually changing anything. They feel momentarily like smarter people, the feeling fades leaving them empty, and nothing changes.
Then perhaps we should discuss having primarily the remaining ones in mind.
Every website has more disengaged readers than real workers.