Why is it so hard to be rational?
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Why is it so hard to be rational?
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Re: Why is it so hard to be rational?
#2I try to avoid mind viruses, or ideas that can hijack your decisions and thought process and take over. Think of a mind virus as a sort of dangerous meme that underpins everything you do. This is why first principles and making decisions based on sound foundations is better, absent of some sort of virulent dogma.
Re: Why is it so hard to be rational?
#3Ah yes, the modern rationalists, few things are as cringe as modern adaptation of classical intellectual currents. Like reddit atheism, it makes a great disservice to the concept from which they steal their name. They have no education beyond their narrow limits, no interest in what lies beyond their time or their common sense.
Re: Why is it so hard to be rational?
#4It's really hard (for me, and I imagine, for everyone else) to not put myself into my views and opinions. Like, when someone shows me that I'm wrong, it's natural for me to feel attacked, instead of just taking it as a learning moment. Noticing when this happens and working with it has been my main struggle in learning how to be more rational. Those views and opinions really don't need to be a part of what I consider "myself."
Rationality, to me, is really about an open-minded approach to beliefs. Allowing multiple beliefs to overlap, to compete, to adapt, without interfering too much with the process.
Re: Why is it so hard to be rational?
#5I try to avoid mind viruses , or ideas that can hijack your decisions and thought process and take over. Think of a mind virus as a sort of dangerous meme that underpins everything you do. This is why first principles and making decisions based on sound foundations is better, absent of some sort of virulent dogma.
Viruses. Virii isn't the plural of virus.
There's a YouTube channel (1) called Street Epistemology which has a guy interview members of the public and ask them if they have a belief they hold to be true such as "the supernatural exists" or "climate change is real" or "x is better than y".
He then asks them to estimate how certain they are that it's true.
Then they talk. The interviewer asks a question and makes notes, then tries to summarise the reply. He questions how they know what they think they know and at the end he asks them to again say how confident they are that what they said is true.
It's fascinating to see people actually talk about and discuss what are usually unsaid thoughts and it shows some glaring biases logical fallacies.
Re: Why is it so hard to be rational?
#6Ah yes, the modern rationalists, few things are as cringe as modern adaptation of classical intellectual currents. Like reddit atheism, it makes a great disservice to the concept from which they steal their name. They have no education beyond their narrow limits, no interest in what lies beyond their time or their common sense.
And they are ever so full of themselves. They're a perfect embodiment of Dunning-Kruger.
Re: Why is it so hard to be rational?
#7It's really hard (for me, and I imagine, for everyone else) to not put myself into my views and opinions. Like, when someone shows me that I'm wrong, it's natural for me to feel attacked, instead of just taking it as a learning moment. Noticing when this happens and working with it has been my main struggle in learning how to be more rational. Those views and opinions really don't need to be a part of what I consider…
> Allowing multiple beliefs to overlap
This doesn't seem very rational. If your beliefs are in conflict and you're content to not resolve that, then pretty much by definition you're accepting a logical inconsistency.
If resolving the intersection doesn't lead to a new stable belief system, then aren't you basically going with "whatever I'm feeling that day"?
Re: Why is it so hard to be rational?
#8I try to avoid mind viruses , or ideas that can hijack your decisions and thought process and take over. Think of a mind virus as a sort of dangerous meme that underpins everything you do. This is why first principles and making decisions based on sound foundations is better, absent of some sort of virulent dogma.
Glad to hear you aren't the only person thinking of the mind virus idea!
Exactly what you said. Once you accept one toxic thought, it tends to branch out into other decisions. Unfortunately there are many, many memes out there ready to cause an infection.
These things can be fatal.
Re: Why is it so hard to be rational?
#9It is quite hard to become rational as humans are emotional beings. Sometimes, emotions will take over rationality in making decisions. This is why people struggle to make wise decisions.
Re: Why is it so hard to be rational?
#10Rationality is a game of checkers played outside in a meadow.
So many distractions. Wind, rain, bees, rampant squirrels.
And what makes that game more interesting than a squirrel anyway?