How young can children start being trained as rationalists? And what would the core syllabus / training regimen look like?

Any fellow OB/LW-ers attending OSCON this year? If you are interested in meeting up there let me know. Perhaps respond to this comment or email me directly and we'll see what we can work out. (You can contact me via gmail at user name evtujo).

I wonder if I'm the only person here so biased, but when you wrote that you used c++ my instant and curiously strong reaction was: why would you use c++ on something like that? that's obviously a python (or similar language) type project.

i'm working on forgiving you.

I know this isn't reddit or hacker news, but I wonder if their might be some value in having some basic link recommending/voting features. For instance people could suggest rationality related links (reading, videos, book recommendations) that aren't at the level of an essay as most entries on this site seem to be. Perhaps this concept is inherent in the format that we have just not used much, i don't know.

I raise this issue because listing TED links made me think of this recent pycon video with Alex Martelli that riffed on the near/far modes that has been discussed on OB/LW lately (I know he comments on OB occasionally).

Currently it seems like this sorts of links/votings only end up in comments of main entries. As another idea perhaps someone could start up a "rationality" subreddit.

i have not viewed it yet (though i'm greatly looking forward to it) but my first reaction was: you got teenagers to sit still for 2 hours to listen to a talk on rationality. my mind is blown.

Having recently received a couple of Amazon gift certificates, I'm looking for recommendations of 'rationalist' books to buy. (It's a little difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.)

I'm looking mainly for non-fiction that would be helpful on the road to rationality. Anything from general introductory type texts to more technical or math oriented stuff. I found this OB thread which has some recommendations, but I thought that:

• this could be a useful thread for beginners (and others) here
• the ability to vote on suggestions would provide extra information

So, if you have a book to recommend, please leave a comment. If you have more than one to recommend, make them separate comments so that each can be voted up/down individually.

There's an interesting googletech video on how to create an online community with desired attributes (a la stackoverflow.com): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWHfY_lvKIQ

* Handle: evtujo
* Location: Montana
* Age: 40
* Gender: Male
* Education: Physics BS, CompSci Masters
* Occupation: Programmer

I've been following OB pretty much since the first couple of months. I was trying to think when I would have started calling myself a rationalist. I can't think of any time in my life when I wouldn't have thought of myself that way. Even 20+ years ago when I thought the world was 6000 years old. I just wasn't a relentless rationalist. I even tried using all the rationalism I could muster to try to develop evangelistic witnessing "scripts". It was during that process that I talked myself out of religion.

Reading OB/LW has made me aware that my rationality skills aren't as sophisticated as I once thought. But one of my current strongest interests in the rationality game is to learn ways to help my children develop their rationality muscles. Also wouldn't hate helping my friends/family/co-workers on this path. I guess I'm just an evangelist at heart.

Excellent post. Upvoted! (Literally.)

it's a relief to hear of others not having success with shangri-la. i wish it worked for everyone but it doesn't and it's (apparently) not just me doing it wrong. though how you mess up drinking oil is beyond me.

i have lost 20 pounds this year (after about 2 years of trying various strategies including shangrila) and the answer was just discipline. cut out sweets ruthlessly and practice letting myself feel hunger. but i'm definitely plateaued now. and i have to exercise my free will every day to stay there. and it slowly starts moving up when i relax it. sigh

and i wish exercise worked as well. but i'd already maxed out that strategy years ago.