This is a new FAQ written LessWrong 2.0. This is the first version and I apologize if it is a little rough. Please comment or message with further questions, typos, things that are unclear, etc.

The old FAQ on the LessWrong Wiki still contains much excellent information, however it has not been kept up to date.

Advice! We suggest you navigate this guide with the help on the table of contents (ToC) in the left sidebar. You will need to scroll to see all of it. Mobile users need to click the menu icon in the top left.

The major sections of this FAQ are:

About LessWrong

What is LessWrong?

LessWrong is a community dedicated to improving our reasoning and decision-making. We seek to hold true beliefs and to be effective at accomplishing our goals. More generally, we want to develop and practice the art of human rationality.

To that end, LessWrong is a place to 1) develop and train rationality, and 2) apply one’s rationality to real-world problems.

LessWrong serves these purposes with its library of rationality writings, community discussion forum, and community page for in-person events.

See also: Welcome to LessWrong!

What is rationality?

Rationality is a term which can have different meanings to different people. You might already associate with a few things. On LessWrong, we mean something like the following:

Rationality is thinking in ways which systematically arrive at truth.
Rationality is thinking in ways which cause you to systematically achieve your goals.
Rationality is trying to do better on purpose.
Rationality is reasoning well even in the face of massive uncertainty.
Rationality is making good decisions even when it’s hard.
Rationality is being self-aware, understanding how your own mind works, and applying this knowledge to thinking better.

See also: What Do We Mean By "Rationality"?, Why Spock is Not Rational, What are the open problems in Human Rationality?

What is the history of LessWrong?

In 2006, Eliezer Yudkowsky and others began writing on Overcoming Bias, a group blog with the general theme of how to move one’s beliefs closer to reality despite biases such as overconfidence and wishful thinking. In 2009, Eliezer moved to a new community blog, Le...

qea

qea

qea

qea