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moridinamael comments on Open thread, Mar. 14 - Mar. 20, 2016 - Less Wrong Discussion
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I think at some point in time a few years ago there seemed to be an implicit assumption on LessWrong that of course you can hack your determination, rewire your networking ability and bootstrap your performance at anything! And I don't think people so much stopped believing that this was true in principle, but rather people started realizing how incredibly difficult and time consuming it is to change your base skillset.
Well, there's also the possibility that people who did successfully hack their determination, networking ability, and performance are now mostly not spending time on LW.
If that's true, then many rationalists actually do win.
Depending on what is their goal. There are many possible levels of "winning".
You can win on individual level by quitting LW and focusing on your career and improving your skills. People who achieve that can easily disappear from our radars.
You can win on group level by creating a community of "successful rationalists"; so you are not only successful as a lonely individual, but you have a tribe that shares your values, and can cooperate in effective ways. We would probably notice such group, for example because they would advertise themselves on LW for purposes of recruitment.
And then you can win on civilizational level, by raising the planetary level of sanity and building a Friendly AI. Almost sure we would notice that.
Okay, the third one is outside of everyday life's scope, so let's ignore it for now.
I don't know how much I am generalizing here from my own example, but winning on an individual level would now feel insufficient for me, having met rationalists on LW website and in real life. If I could increase my skills and resources significantly, I would probably spend some time trying to get others from the rationalist community on my level. Because having allies I could achieve even more. So I would probably post much less comments on LW, but once in a while I would post an article trying to inspire people to "become stronger".
On the other hand, perhaps you are being too insular in the communities you engage in. There are many, many groups of smart people out there in the world. Perhaps someone who got what they wanted from LW and 'quit' went on to gather allies who were already successful in their fields?
Maybe some started to appreciate the struggle and the suffering, to find joy and strength in it. Then, their terminal goals pivoted.
Thousand of small steps is required, one big epiphany is not enough. But many people expect the latter, because the very reason they seek advice is to avoid doing the former.
"Isn't there a pill I can just take?"
X-)
The world needs more "pills I can just take."
I don't know about that. So far the world's experience with "Just take this pill and everything will be fine" is... mixed.
Well, admittedly I was assuming pills that worked and had the intended effect.