I'd be very interested to see the results of their ongoing research. And I'd like to know how the debiasing process compares to e.g. CBT.
They're selling seminars; there doesn't appear to be actual research going on.
Checklist of Rationality Habits
31–40 of 63 posts
Re: Checklist of Rationality Habits
#32I'm distressed by how unscientific a lot of this stuff is. It's all good advice, but some of it seems to come from some pretty naive perceptions of how consciousness and the brain work. The example in 3.1, for example: > Recent example from Anna: Jumping off the Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas in a wire-guided fall. I knew it was safe based on 40,000 data points of people doing it without significant injury, but to p…
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Re: Checklist of Rationality Habits
#33Now I know this is not going to sound "rational", but... I saw the example early on the page about evaluating whether or not to outsource their clothes shopping, and just stopped. Anyone for whom this is even a valid concept is so far removed from who I am that I just am not going to value their advice.
That comment was an example provided by someone noticing a described behavior, not a recommendation by the author.
Re: Checklist of Rationality Habits
#34Who told them that we have any kind of "parallel threads of consciousness" to run "chekers" for these "rational heuristics" or "pattern matchers" on an input stream? Another variety of "multitasking" nonsense. On paper it is all logical and "rational". Now try to run this in your mind in so-called state of "flow". Don't have a flow? That means you don't have your attention focused. All the classic attention experimen…
This is just an amusing aside: Where I work, we sometimes have these sessions conducted by outside consultants. At one such session, after an introduction about how we can be fooled by our expectations, we were shown the gorilla video.
When the trainer asked if we noticed something unusual in the video, all but one or two of us raised our hands.
We had all seen the gorilla video.
So I think the gorilla video actually teaches a new concept, which is that you should assume that the people you are dealing with have the same access to information as you have unless you have a reason to believe that it's a secret.
Re: Checklist of Rationality Habits
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just remember that the human brain is basically not set up for objectivity. Plenty of people who consider themselves rational are capable of making decisions that you would call unrational. Doesn't mean you need to live your life through a checklist, but it helps to be critical of thoughts like "I am a very rational person"
That's fair. While I called myself rational, I would never claim to make exclusively rational decisions. I would not want to go down the rabbit hole of trying to define rationality, or force myself into the Procrustean bed of a specific definition. If rationalism turns into some sort of utopian or self consistent ideology, then I'll remain aloof from it. At the same time, while the human brain isn't set up for object…
Someone learning to play the piano (an unnatural task) needs to monitor their behavior and look for good habits to reinforce and bad habits to unlearn. But you do that during practice, not performance. By the time you're ready to perform, playing the right way should seem "natural" even though it's still a highly artificial task.
I think there's something like that here. Thinking rationally is an unnatural act and some folks are interested in figuring out how to better train for it. Maybe it's a bit of a weird hobby, but I'm happy there are people investigating it.
However, it's still early days for figuring out which training techniques are effective. This checklist is a sketch of bad habits to look for, but how best to use it isn't settled yet.
(There are places for checklists in production. They're useful in high-risk situations where error has to be eliminated. Pilots rely extensively on checklists, and they're starting to be used more in hospitals.)
Re: Checklist of Rationality Habits
#36Who told them that we have any kind of "parallel threads of consciousness" to run "chekers" for these "rational heuristics" or "pattern matchers" on an input stream? Another variety of "multitasking" nonsense. On paper it is all logical and "rational". Now try to run this in your mind in so-called state of "flow". Don't have a flow? That means you don't have your attention focused. All the classic attention experimen…
This is just an amusing aside: Where I work, we sometimes have these sessions conducted by outside consultants. At one such session, after an introduction about how we can be fooled by our expectations, we were shown the gorilla video. When the trainer asked if we noticed something unusual in the video, all but one or two of us raised our hands. We had all seen the gorilla video. So I think the gorilla video actually…
For me, the concept was that we are filtering out most of what happens in the shared environment (in order to not being overwhelmed), that our mental mechanisms are rather imperfect (most of people are absolutely sure that they have flawless tools, and the entire universe is completely comprehensible) and that different people could have incompatible inner representations of the very same phenomena.
Btw, the flawed mental apparatus as a reason to hypothetical inability to comprehend "the true nature of reality" is one of the basic premises of thousands years old Indian philosophy, which emphasizes subjectivity.
Re: Checklist of Rationality Habits
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sometimes I rationally realize that I am making an irrational decision, but I still prefer the "wrong" decision. For example, I may pick up a dirty penny in a street. The risk/reward is negative because the very slight possibility or disease or accident outweighs the very slight financial reward, but I prefer to pick up the penny anyway. Am I rational because of the analysis, or irrational because I make the wrong ch…
I think the key thing is that being a perfectly rational actor is a strange and twisting pursuit. Measuring your actions against another scale is more useful IMO. Being humane/considerate/farsighted (or any set of subjective values that you believe are important) make a better measuring stick than rationality
This is a good point--I would phrase it as whatever over-arching organizing value set or decision-making framework you choose to use (whether it be "go with your gut", Rationality Uber Alles, WWJD?, "don't be a dick", or whatever) does not absolve you of responsibility for the actions you take according to that framework. Using rationality or moral values or whatever as a means to develop self-awareness and maturity is a valid and useful exercise IMO, but I know too many people who feel like "I'm just doing what XXXXX says I should do" excuses their actions even though it was still their choice in the first place to do what XXXXX says.
Also, Antonio Damasio's work is an interesting complement/counterpoint to the overemphasis of cognitive rational thinking, and I'd highly recommend it. Descarte's Error is a good place to start, and makes the strong case that rationality is part of an embodied (literally) process upon which it depends.
Re: Checklist of Rationality Habits
#38I used to think this checklist was misguided. My mental model of improving my rationality was something like acquiring lots and lots of impressive and clever tools and then training myself to apply them in context appropriate places. I've come around to a model much more in line with this checklist though. Something like:
1. Noticing behavioral patterns
2. Thinking hard and doing research on the pattern, whether it leads to good or bad outcomes and whether modifying it is cost effective
3. Using habit formation techniques to modify things
4. Reviewing and reflecting on what is and isn't working for things I have modified using the above steps
Old me would have considered this very laborious. You only get to make small changes this way and you aren't guaranteed they work. However, it doesn't take that many real improvements in fundamental counter-productive patterns before the benefits start stacking on top of each other. A few weeks of intense focus on one particular pattern is actually fairly high leverage considering that you can instill habits that will last a lifetime.
Re: Checklist of Rationality Habits
#39As a mathematician, rationality is very important to me. (It is sufficiently important that I believe in determining my own criteria for rationality, rather than using someone else's list.) In this spirit, I have an infuriating (to others) habit of reflexively arguing against someone else's position. (It was originally born out of the "search for counterexamples" mindset of a mathematician, but now it's an unconsciou…
As a scientist, empiricism is very important to me as rationality alone will lead you into the thickets of solipsism.
Is there an expected useful outcome for challenging every statement? "My favorite dessert is chocolate cake" can be countered with "I've seen you choose apple pie instead of chocolate cake for dessert the last 3 of 5 times". But so what? Why do you think your limited observations trump the speaker's more complete knowledge enough to force an argument at that point?
It doesn't sound like you've used feedback from your previous arguments in order to determine if you indeed have enough information to have a meaningful counter-argument. Doubt fuels empiricism, not rationalism.
There's also an opportunity cost. "The Vikings made it to North America" can be challenged with "but the Norse of Greenland weren't really Vikings", inviting a competitive but ultimately bland argument about various etymological nuances, when the speaker actually wanted to bring up the latest archeological finds on Baffin Island. The speaker may be less likely to talk with you in the future about interesting ideas, to avoid being dragged into inane debates.
There's also the possibility that you are being deliberately distracted. A reflexive challenge means you only really consider the surface arguments, and not the underlying premise. If someone says that Agile is better than Waterfall, your response could be to point out cases where Waterfall is better, without realizing how that discussion tends to assume the creation myth of Agile, constructed on a false narrative of history. (See http://www.infoq.com/articles/bossavit-agile-ten-years-on .)
Statements are data points, not debate points. You may feel like you need to respond to them at once. Or you can collect them, use to them test and refine your hypotheses about what the other person is saying, and estimate if it's useful enough to voice a contrary opinion.
Re: Checklist of Rationality Habits
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is just an amusing aside: Where I work, we sometimes have these sessions conducted by outside consultants. At one such session, after an introduction about how we can be fooled by our expectations, we were shown the gorilla video. When the trainer asked if we noticed something unusual in the video, all but one or two of us raised our hands. We had all seen the gorilla video. So I think the gorilla video actually…
For me, the concept was that we are filtering out most of what happens in the shared environment (in order to not being overwhelmed), that our mental mechanisms are rather imperfect (most of people are absolutely sure that they have flawless tools, and the entire universe is completely comprehensible) and that different people could have incompatible inner representations of the very same phenomena. Btw, the flawed m…
Agreed. That was the concept until the video went viral.