You have given me much to think about. I will digest and think before I reply further. But thank you for the very high quality level of engagement and feedback.
I should note a few things from the start. I understand that there is much prewritten work available here, namely the sequences, the codex, and my favorite fanfic ever, HPMOR. I have tried to find and understand where any of these or any other prewritten works associated with LessWrong.com might have already addressed these questions. I am writing this however because either I did not find the answers I was looking for or I have not recognized them; either way I ask for assistance.
Also, full disclosure, while I have spent the majority of the past three and a half decades (of my 53 total years) on my own exploring applied rationality and... (read 1449 more words →)
Follow-up protocol question: in responding to these answers and replies, which method is more appropriate for this venue, creating one comment per reply, or creating one massive comment that addresses everything? The former is probably easier for me. The latter would likely be a ginormous wall of text.