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Fake thinking and real thinking — LessWrong

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“There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall?” - C.S. Lewis Sometimes, my thinking feels more “real” to me; and sometimes, it feels more “fake.” I want to do the real version, so I want to understand this spectrum better. This essay offers some reflections. I give a bunch of examples of this “fake vs. real” spectrum below -- in AI, philosophy, competitive debate, everyday life, and religion. My current sense is that it brings together a cluster of related dimensions, namely: These dimensions aren’t the same. But I think they’re correlated – and I offer some speculations about why. In particular, I speculate about their relationship to the “telos” of thinking – that is, to the thing that thinking is “supposed to” do. I also describe some tags I’m currently using when I remind myself to “really think.” In particular: I close with some reflections on the role of “real thinking” in staying awake as we enter th

x Fake thinking and real thinking — LessWrong Rationality Frontpage 2025 Top Fifty: 17 % 119 Fake thinking and real thinking by Joe Carlsmith 28th Jan 2025 46 min read 17 119 (Audio version here , or search for "Joe Carlsmith Audio" on your podcast app.) “There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall?” - C.S. Lewis “The Human Condition,” by René Magritte (Image source here ) 1. Introduction Sometimes, my thinking feels more “real” to me; and sometimes, it feels more “fake.” I want to do the real version, so I want t

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