Anna Salamon and I are confused. Both of us notice ourselves rationalizing on pretty much a daily basis and have to apply techniques like the Litany of Tarski pretty regularly. But in several of our test sessions for teaching rationality, a handful of people report never rationalizing and seem to have little clue what Tarski is for. They don't relate to any examples we give, whether fictitious or actual personal examples from our lives. Some of these people show signs of being rather high-level rationalists overall, although some don't.

Discussion article for the meetup : San Diego experimental meetup

Discussion article for the meetup : San Diego experimental meetup

The idea for this came to me when reading nyan_sandwich's "An akrasia case study." I outlined the idea itself in my comment in that thread.

So here's the plan:

• In a comment reply to this, describe a specific instance of akrasia in your own life. Place an emphasis on the specificity. Focus on a specific task, either positive (i.e., that you judge to be good to do but self-sabotage from doing, like writing a paper) or negative (i.e., that you know you shouldn't do but do anyway, like buying more Frosted Flakes for breakfast and continuing to eat them). The more specific, the better.
• You can share multiple instances, but please create new comments for each.
• If you tried an anti-akrasia technique in this specific context, explain what you did and what effect it had. If you have some way in which you measured its effects objectively, please share that. If not, though, that's okay; we can still learn something from what various attempts to tackle different manifestations of akrasia feel like from the inside. The goal here is not to propose solutions; instead, it's to see what different things that feel like solutions seem to do to different kinds of akrasia. So even failed attempts are useful.
• If you tried multiple approaches or if your approach requires some explanation, you might consider describing it and its effects in a reply to your description of the instance of akrasia you applied it to.

Let me emphasize one more time that we are not looking for solutions in this thread. Please don't give each other suggestions! If you think you're on to something hot in terms of the "kicking" aspect of the Art, please show us with a description of how the technique worked for you on a specific instance - but share the instance first. The goal here is not to demonstrate that you have a clever anti-akrasia technique. The goal instead is to see what different instances of akrasia and attempts to tackle it actually look like.

If at all possible, please share both successes and failures. This is especially helpful if we can see successes and failures of the same technique. This helps to balance out positive bias and gives us a better idea of the parameters within which different techniques work. Be especially wary if you have a favorite anti-akrasia technique because of the subconscious desire to attempt to change reality by pretending your favorite technique is actually perfect. If you do have a favorite technique, please actively seek out its true weak points.

Let's crack this thing!

Discussion article for the meetup : San Diego meetup

Discussion article for the meetup : San Diego meetup

I'm trying to do some research related to human dominance including social signaling and how dominance is both successfully and unsuccessfully challenged.  Ideally I'd like to find what the common factors are rather than having it be too particular to one community or another.  Unfortunately everything I can find on the topic is either about dominance behavior of other primates or is ad-hoc self-help advice by self-proclaimed gurus of social power.

Can anyone point me in the direction of the science of human dominance behavior?

I'm planning on starting a business in a few years.  I realize that I have absolutely zero entrepreneurial experience and really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to appealing to my target audience.  I know a number of psychological tricks that should in theory work, but theory and practice often differ and my understanding of the theory isn't robust enough to make up for the difference.

So, what I need is some kind of rational direction to look in so that I can start digging into the basic marketing research I'll need to do before I plunk money down on a business.  At this point my expertise is limited to having read Michael Gerber's book The E-Myth Revisited, which in my naivety seems like a good way to address the question of how to avoid being a victim of the stunning failure rate of private businesses.  But I really wouldn't be surprised to discover that Gerber is just dead wrong and that I don't have the background needed to understand that.

So, my question is: Where can I look to get rational guidance on this?  I prefer a book or a series or something like that since I don't have the money to hire a professional yet, and it's still a bit early to start plunking money down on the seed of a business idea.

I doubt the nature of the business I'm thinking of is all that relevant since I'm looking for pretty basic, general information on marketing.  But as I could easily be wrong: This is for a school.  My hope is to get an alternative high school set up that trains students to be meaningfully ready for the modern world, dropping the stuff that's there purely due to cultural momentum.  By and large (but not completely), this means focusing on metacognitive skills rather than primarily on subject content.  I'm an education researcher and know of a number of psychological tools that are extremely promising and have proven effective in a wide range of cases but simply haven't been adopted for use in classrooms on any relevant scale, so part of my work between now and when I start this school is going to be aimed at doing research to hammer out the pragmatics.  But that's the idea in a very tiny nutshell: use findings in psychology and sociology to teach stuff to teenagers that they'll actually find useful throughout their lives and that society will be glad that they know.  I'm interested in making this a business primarily because I need it to provide me with enough of an income that I don't have to distract myself with some other job in order to support my family.

So: rational marketing research methods.  Anyone have a good direction for me?

Discussion article for the meetup : San Diego social meet-up

Discussion article for the meetup : San Diego social meet-up

Discussion article for the meetup : First San Diego, CA, USA meetup

Discussion article for the meetup : First San Diego, CA, USA meetup

It seems that every time I try to go to this meetup announcement I posted, I get the spiffy new Less Wrong "system has crashed" error.  I get the same problem when I click on my username (presumably because the top post in that list is the one linked to above).

It was working fine earlier.  I'm not sure what happened.  I'd like to read the comments that have since been added.  Can anyone offer a hint about this?

We're holding what I believe is the first San Diego meetup on Sunday, July 31st starting at 1pm at the K&B Wine Cellars near San Diego State University:

6380 Del Cerro Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92120

The phone number for the place is 619-286-0884.  This is one of a number of places along a strip that's attached to a grocery store of sorts.  It's something like a coffee house only with beer, wine, & liquor instead of coffee.  (Underage attendees should be fine; you just won't be able to get alcohol.  There's food and some non-alcoholic drinks if you like.)  We're meeting in a semi-hidden room in the far back.  When you walk in, go as straight as you can while staying close to the left wall.

This will be an introductory meeting so that those in the San Diego area can meet one another.  We'll talk about what we want to get out of these meetups and hammer out some specific plans for how to accomplish that.  From some initial conversations, it sounds like we'll have monthly meetups, though that stands a fair chance of changing depending on what we discuss here.

Feel free to bring friends, significant others, or anyone else who's interested in rationality.  Also, give some thought to what you'd like out of these meetups.  It doesn't have to be profound; camaraderie or "I don't know" are fine answers.  But if you give it a bit of thought ahead of time, you might find it easier to envision and articulate more precisely what it is that you'd like to see these meetups become.

I should also mention that this location has a projector setup, so if there's something you'd like to share PowerPoint style, feel free to bring that.  I haven't gotten details from the restaurant as yet about how to use the projector setup (e.g. is it transparencies or a laptop hookup?), but I'll edit in that clarification once I get it.

Let me know if you have any questions.  Also, if you could either reply here or give me a quick PM to let me know you're coming, that would be helpful.  That way I can let the place know how many to set the space up for.

ETA: I should add that I do have some material on practical uses of mindfulness that I'm quite willing to offer.  I've been teaching this stuff for about seven years now.  But I don't want to say that that's definitely what this meeting will be about since I want to find out what everyone is looking to gain from these first.

ETA #2: Also, please, PLEASE don't bring smokers.  My wife is coming, and she's asthmatic in a way that reacts severely to cigarette smoke even if it's lingering on others' clothing.  If someone shows up with a lot of smoke on them, my wife and I will have to leave right away.  I doubt this will be an issue with this group, but it's significant enough to be worth making explicit.  Thanks!