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All of Charlie_OConnor's Comments + Replies

Teachable Rationality Skills
Charlie_OConnor30

Exercise: Pretend you are your evil alter ego when analyzing the reasons for your rationalization. What would your alter ego say about your rationalization? Your alter ego will probably come up with some selfish, lazy or just plain silly reasons for your rationalization. Once you have this list see the section on how to accept the truth.

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The 5-Second Level
Charlie_OConnor40

5 second level for evidence as soldiers

  1. Notice that all your evidence favors your belief; or Notice the anger/resentment/fear when coming across evidence against your belief.
  2. Pause and remember that
    1. beliefs are just expectations and truth is a measure of how accurate your expectations are
    2. evidence is not for or against a belief, it is a flow of probability between expectations
  3. Feel aversion to not internalizing all the evidence, to not letting reality constrain your expectations (beliefs)
  4. Make an bayesian calculation, incrementally incorporating all the
... (read more)
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0laakeus
I'm curious as to what your updated beliefs are on parental influence. Can you summarize in couple of paragraphs? (I think the original description matches how I view the issue, but I feel the topic doesn't have enough importance for me to spend a lot of time trying to update my beliefs.)
1outofculture
A variant on this topic: 1. Notice when providing evidence X for a position P you believe in. 1. Bonus points for reviewing recent memories to see if you have supported P repeatedly, especially to the exclusion of evidence to the contrary. 2. Feel revulsion at having become the puppet of P. 3. Introduce a nudge away from P. Some examples: 1. Provide some good evidence counter to P. 2. If you cannot point to specific counter evidence, try to at least describe what counter evidence would look like. 3. State just how surprised you would be to see the evidence X if the position P were false. Can you rank it relative to other pieces of evidence under consideration? If the evidence is really weak, ask to have it weighted as such. This seems sloppy, as it relies on the sense of revulsion to determine how much of a counter-nudge to give. It should still be useful, I hope. The exercise to train this with: 1. Propose a character facing a choice, especially on topics that are muddled by being high-profile (e.g. Jane Senator must decide how to vote on extending unemployment benefits). 2. Provide a small selection of evidence that the character has considered, and state that their position after seeing just that evidence is for, against or undecided. 3. Ask the participants what additional evidence they think the character should consider.
The 5-Second Level
Charlie_OConnor60

I've had similar discussions and I have found it useful to mentally (or actually on paper) tally the number of times I did the dishes and the number of times she did the dishes for a week or two.

Even though I thought I did them more and she thought she did them more, it turned out even. I was biased to remember the times I did the dishes and she was biased to remember the times she did them, and neither of us remember the times the other person did them.

I have taken this as a lesson that examples are useful.

And as a lesson that without examples I should be less upset than I am.

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The 5-Second Level
Charlie_OConnor10

I think your scenario is good. I think the group dynamic and individual personality determine when this is easy and when it is difficult.

I have been in groups where it is easy to admit mistakes and move on; and I have been in groups where admitting a mistake feels like you are no longer part of the group.

So this can be realistic. I find taking the approach of admitting mistakes often helps others follow the same path, and leads to a better group dynamic.

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Madison Less Wrong Meetup: Wednesday, 16 Feb
Charlie_OConnor00

I wish I still lived in Madison, I would be there

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Procedural Knowledge Gaps
Charlie_OConnor70

Where can I get an IQ test? I am an adult and was never tested as a child. Searching google has only given me online tests. I want a professionally done test.

I considered myself intelligent, but some of the sequences/posts on this site are quite challenging for me. It has made me curious on exactly how intelligent I am. I don’t want to be too over or under confident when it comes to intelligence. I try to learn new things and that helps me find the limits of my intelligence, but I figure my IQ will also be interesting to know as well.

Thanks.

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2taw
Mensa runs IQ tests frequently, worldwide, for a small fee. That's the best choice (and the only thing they're useful for).
1Jonathan_Graehl
I grew up with a very weird opinion about my place in the world as a result of a kindergarten IQ test (they never told me a number, but I knew it was good, because, for example, I got to the point where I had to ask the proctor what it means when someone writes a fraction - of course I didn't know it was called that). Everything I've done since then has been a let down :) You're better off not knowing. Just use whatever you've got. There are many high-IQ-tested people who have crazy views and behavior, and are unsuccessful and unhappy (I don't deny that there exists some meaningful single general intelligence number, but what does knowing it give you?) Besides, such tests can definitely be studied for as a skill, as much as any game (waste of time warning: Cambridge Brain Sciences games). So caring about the result just means you're going to effectively waste time practicing.
2first_fire
Private psychologists will probably perform them, but there is also the convenient option of finding out when your local branch of Mensa is having its next round of testing. One of the cheaper options, plus access to Mensa services such as the Travel special interest group (staying for free with interesting people around the world) if you're above the requisite percentile.
3Vladimir_M
Note however that IQ is not a property of individuals measurable on an individual basis like, say, height or weight is. Its utility lies in its statistical power to predict the average performance of large groups of people. When it comes to testing a specific individual, except perhaps for the greatest extremes (like diagnosing mental retardation), the fact that you achieved a certain score gives only probabilistic information about you. Moreover, for individuals scoring in high percentiles, to which you probably belong if you find the stuff written on this blog interesting, there are strong diminishing returns to high scores even statistically. It's like e.g. wondering about your height with regards to your basketball prospects: your potentials are indeed likely to be much greater if you're, say, 6'2" rather than 5'10", but if you already know that you're more than a few inches above average, the difference between, say, 6'9" and 6'5" won't matter anywhere as much.
7gwern
Per saturn's comment, online tests can be pretty accurate, especially the ones which are imitating (copying) the matrix-style tests; I keep a list as part of the DNB FAQ. Note the many caveats. In particular, you cannot take multiple tests! Obviously for most of them you can't take it twice because the questions don't change, but less obviously, they're all similar enough that if you take one, you can expect your score on the second to be noticeably increased just from familiarity/experience. (This is why I suggest that people doing dual n-back do before/after IQ tests with a minimum of months in between, and preferably years.)
2Blueberry
There is a rough correlation between IQ and standardized test scores.
2saturn
Some private psychologists will do them. If there's a research university near you, you might be able to get one for free by participating in a study. However, I discourage you from doing this. The usefulness of knowing your own IQ is already limited at best, and the extra accuracy compared to a good online test isn't worth the amount of time you'll need to spend on it.