Rationality Quotes Thread December 2015

5 elharo 02 December 2015 11:28AM

Another month, another rationality quotes thread. The rules are:

  • Provide sufficient information (URL, title, date, page number, etc.) to enable a reader to find the place where you read the quote, or its original source if available. Do not quote with only a name.
  • Please post all quotes separately, so that they can be upvoted or downvoted separately. (If they are strongly related, reply to your own comments. If strongly ordered, then go ahead and post them together.)
  • Do not quote yourself.
  • Do not quote from Less Wrong itself, HPMoR, Eliezer Yudkowsky, or Robin Hanson. If you'd like to revive an old quote from one of those sources, please do so here.
  • No more than 5 quotes per person per monthly thread, please.

The benefits of madness: A positive account of arationality

101 Skatche 22 April 2011 07:43PM

This post originated in a comment I posted about a strange and unpleasant experience I had when pushing myself too hard mentally.  People seemed interested in hearing about it, so I sat down to write.  In the process, however, it became something rather different (and a great deal longer) than what I originally intended.  The incident referred to in the above comment was a case of manic focus gone wrong; but the truth is, often in my life it's gone incredibly right.  I've gotten myself into some pretty strange headspaces, but through discipline and quick thinking I have often been able to turn them to my advantage and put them to good use.

Part 1, then, lays out a sort of cognitive history, focusing on the more extreme states I've been in.  Part 2 continues the narrative; this is where I began to learn to ride them out and make them work for me.  Part 3 is the incident in question: where I overstepped myself and suffered the consequences.

Some of you, however, may want to skip ahead to part 4 (unless you find my autobiographical writings interesting as a case study).  There, I've written a proposal for a series of posts about how to effectively use the full spectrum of somatic and cognitive states to one's advantage.  I have vacillated for a long time about this, for reasons that will be discussed below, but I decided that if I was already laying this much on the line, I might as well take it a step further.  Read if you will; and if you're interested, please say so.

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Toronto Less Wrong Meetup - Thursday Feb 17

6 Skatche 10 February 2011 06:29PM

Burning Man Meetup: Bayes Camp

16 Larks 25 August 2010 06:14AM

In celebration of the virtues of applied rationality, Less Wrong is going to Burning Man! And because Heinlein rationalists should win, Bayes Camp is going to be the most awesome place there.

A bunch of people from SingInst/Less Wrong will be descending upon the desert, bedecked as the members of the Bayesian Conspiracy. Kevin, Jasen, JustinShovelain, Peter de Blanc, Michael Vassar and Nick Tarleton, among others, will be there. If you'd like to stop by, say so in the comments! 

We'll be at 6:50, F, and should be there from Monday 30th.

Please note: Burning Man is serious stuff, and if you don’t think you’re up to the desert, you shouldn’t come. Either way, read the survival guide.

 

EDIT: updated location

Not Technically Lying

32 Psychohistorian 04 July 2009 06:40PM

I'm sorry I took so long to post this. My computer broke a little while ago. I promise this will be relevant later.

A surgeon has to perform emergency surgery on a patient. No painkillers of any kind are available. The surgeon takes an inert saline IV and hooks it up to the patient, hoping that the illusion of extra treatment will make the patient more comfortable. The patient asks, "What's in that?" The doctor has a few options:

  1. "It's a saline IV. It shouldn't do anything itself, but if you believe it's a painkiller, it'll make this less painful.
  2. "Morphine."
  3. "The strongest painkiller I have."

-The first explanation is not only true, but maximizes the patient's understanding of the world.
-The second is obviously a lie, though, in this case, it is a lie with a clear intended positive effect: if the patient thinks he's getting morphine, then, due to the placebo effect, there is a very real chance he will experience less subjective pain.
-The third is, in a sense, both true and a lie. It is technically true. However, it's somewhat arbitrary; the doctor could have easily have said "It's the weakest painkiller I have," or "It's the strongest sedative I have," or any other number of technically true but misleading statements. This statement is clearly intended to mislead the hearer into thinking it is a potent painkiller; it promotes false beliefs while not quite being a false statement. It's Not Technically Lying. It seems that it deserves most, if not almost all, the disapproval that actually lying does; the truth does not save it. Because language does not specify single, clear meanings we can often use language where the obvious meaning is false and the non-obvious true, intentionally promoting false beliefs without false statements.

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