I’m not arguing against trying to compare things. I was saying that the comparison wasn’t informative. Comparing dissimilar effects is valuable when done well, but comparing d-values of different effects from different interventions tells you very little.
Probably the crux here is that I think rationality training & the psychedelic experience can achieve similar kinds of behavior change (e.g. less energy spent on negative self-talk & unhelpful personal narratives) such that their effect sizes can be compared.
Whereas you think that rationality training & the psychedelic experience are different enough that believable comparison isn’t possible.
fwiw I think negative self-talk (a kind of emotional block) & unhelpful personal narratives are big parts of the subjective experience of depression.
Comparing dissimilar effects is a core part of EA-style analysis, right?
I’m not arguing against trying to compare things. I was saying that the comparison wasn’t informative. Comparing dissimilar effects is valuable when done well, but comparing d-values of different effects from different interventions tells you very little.
Probably the crux here is that I think rationality training & the psychedelic experience can achieve similar kinds of behavior change (e.g. less energy spent on negative self-talk & unhelpful personal narratives) such that their effect sizes can be compared.
Whereas you think that rationality training & the psychedelic experience are different enough that believable comparison isn’t possible.
Does that sound right to you?