I have very mixed feelings about this website. On the one hand, it's got interesting articles and reading HPMOR was very entertaining. But, on the other, there's so many people who are just writing posts that are embarrassingly the opposite of what they claim they are all about: self-consciousness, in particular.
Me and my friends are rational, that is, all that is right and correct, by definition, and we call ourselves Rationalists. Can't you see the paradox in this claim? And yet I thought people here didn't find Spock rational, and correctly assessed that his character is "defined" as such by the story, but it fails to fulfill itself. As a human being you will always fail. The website is called "less wrong", for a random divinity's sake. It should be about striving to be less wrong while admitting we cannot avoid failure, not about jerking each other off about how rational and better we are than others. And yet...
In general I am highly suspicious of any lover of truth who will willingly call themselves a sophist: for a Rationalist, there is little praise as high as being a Rationalist, and therefore calling yourself and the people who agree with you with this name is very much patting your own back.
Especially when using to criticize and compare yourself to people you disagree with.
Having said this, there are interesting things in this post too. I'm not saying it's completely bad, but a lot of the language and framing here leads me to think there is also a lot of unnecessary arrogance. I just wanna say, more actual thinking, less implicit self-praise.
Thank you for this comment.
I have very mixed feelings about this website. On the one hand, it's got interesting articles and reading HPMOR was very entertaining. But, on the other, there's so many people who are just writing posts that are embarrassingly the opposite of what they claim they are all about: self-consciousness, in particular.
Me and my friends are rational, that is, all that is right and correct, by definition, and we call ourselves Rationalists. Can't you see the paradox in this claim? And yet I thought people here didn't find Spock rational, and correctly assessed that his character is "defined" as such by the story, but it fails to fulfill itself. As a human being you will always fail. The website is called "less wrong", for a random divinity's sake. It should be about striving to be less wrong while admitting we cannot avoid failure, not about jerking each other off about how rational and better we are than others. And yet...
In general I am highly suspicious of any lover of truth who will willingly call themselves a sophist: for a Rationalist, there is little praise as high as being a Rationalist, and therefore calling yourself and the people who agree with you with this name is very much patting your own back.
Especially when using to criticize and compare yourself to people you disagree with.
Having said this, there are interesting things in this post too. I'm not saying it's completely bad, but a lot of the language and framing here leads me to think there is also a lot of unnecessary arrogance. I just wanna say, more actual thinking, less implicit self-praise.