Eh, I agree with you that LW-style rationalists are far from sinless in this regard, but it’s hard to not notice that many people, including on EAF, seem to have a strong revealed preference for irrationality.
I’m not sure why; one guess I have is that people (subconsciously) correctly identify rational irrationality as the best strategy to come across as loyal to one’s tribe. I find this sad, but I don’t have a real answer here; the incentives are strong and point in the wrong direction.
In my ideal culture, everybody will be polite about it, but sloppy thinking will still be heavily censured, rather than rewarded.
(slightly feverish, apologies if I’m not making as much sense, ironically).
On LW, I thought comments here were very poor, with a few half-exceptions. It wasn’t even a controversial topic!
On EAF, I pragmatically am not that interested in either starting new fights, or relitigating past ones. I will say that making my comment here solely about kindness, rather than kindness and epistemics, was a tactical decision.
Eh, I agree with you that LW-style rationalists are far from sinless in this regard, but it’s hard to not notice that many people, including on EAF, seem to have a strong revealed preference for irrationality.
I’m not sure why; one guess I have is that people (subconsciously) correctly identify rational irrationality as the best strategy to come across as loyal to one’s tribe. I find this sad, but I don’t have a real answer here; the incentives are strong and point in the wrong direction.
In my ideal culture, everybody will be polite about it, but sloppy thinking will still be heavily censured, rather than rewarded.
(slightly feverish, apologies if I’m not making as much sense, ironically).
What instances do you have in mind by “strong revealed preference for irrationality”?
On LW, I thought comments here were very poor, with a few half-exceptions. It wasn’t even a controversial topic!
On EAF, I pragmatically am not that interested in either starting new fights, or relitigating past ones. I will say that making my comment here solely about kindness, rather than kindness and epistemics, was a tactical decision.