However, distancing yourself from ‘small r’ rationality is far more radical and likely less considered.
Could you share some examples of where people have done this or called for it?
From what I’ve seen online and the in person EA community members I know, people seem pretty clear about separating themselves from the Rationalist community.
It would be indeed very strange if people made the distinction, thought about the problem carefully, and advocated for distancing from ‘small r’ rationality in particular.
I would expect real cases to look like - someone is deciding about an EAGx conference program; a talk on prediction markets sounds subtly Rationality-coded, and is not put on schedule - someone applies to OP for funding to create rationality training website; this is not funded because making the distinction between Rationality and rationality would require too much nuance - someone is deciding about what intro level materials to link to; some links to LessWrong are not included
The crux is really what’s at the end of my text—if people do steps like above, and nothing else, they are distancing also from the ‘small r’ thing.
Obviously part of the problem for the separation plan is Rationality and Rationality-adjacent community actually made meaningful progress on rationality and rationality education; a funny example here in the comments … Radical Empath Ismam advocates for the split and suggests EAs should draw from the “scientific skepticism” tradition instead of Bay Rationality. Well, if I take that suggestion seriously, and start looking for what could be good intro materials relevant to the EA project (which “debunking claims about telekinesis” advocacy content probably isn’t) …. I’ll find New York City Skeptics and their podcast, Rationally Speaking. Run by Julia Galef, who also later wrote Scout Mindset. Excellent. And also, co-founded CFAR.
Yeah for sure I don’t really understand how you could be an Effective Altruist without implementing a heavy dose of “small r” rationality. I agree with the post and think its a really important point to make and consolidate, but I don’t think people are really calling for being less rational...
Could you share some examples of where people have done this or called for it?
From what I’ve seen online and the in person EA community members I know, people seem pretty clear about separating themselves from the Rationalist community.
It would be indeed very strange if people made the distinction, thought about the problem carefully, and advocated for distancing from ‘small r’ rationality in particular.
I would expect real cases to look like
- someone is deciding about an EAGx conference program; a talk on prediction markets sounds subtly Rationality-coded, and is not put on schedule
- someone applies to OP for funding to create rationality training website; this is not funded because making the distinction between Rationality and rationality would require too much nuance
- someone is deciding about what intro level materials to link to; some links to LessWrong are not included
The crux is really what’s at the end of my text—if people do steps like above, and nothing else, they are distancing also from the ‘small r’ thing.
Obviously part of the problem for the separation plan is Rationality and Rationality-adjacent community actually made meaningful progress on rationality and rationality education; a funny example here in the comments … Radical Empath Ismam advocates for the split and suggests EAs should draw from the “scientific skepticism” tradition instead of Bay Rationality. Well, if I take that suggestion seriously, and start looking for what could be good intro materials relevant to the EA project (which “debunking claims about telekinesis” advocacy content probably isn’t) …. I’ll find New York City Skeptics and their podcast, Rationally Speaking. Run by Julia Galef, who also later wrote Scout Mindset. Excellent. And also, co-founded CFAR.
Yeah for sure I don’t really understand how you could be an Effective Altruist without implementing a heavy dose of “small r” rationality. I agree with the post and think its a really important point to make and consolidate, but I don’t think people are really calling for being less rational...