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Dark Arts of Rationality

mindingourway.com · 5,471 words · saved by 1 readers

Note: the author now disclaims this post, and asserts that his past self was insufficiently skilled in the art of rationality to "take the good and discard the bad" even when you don't yet know how to justify it. You can, of course, get all the benefits described below, without once compromising your epistemics. Today, we're going to talk about Dark rationalist techniques: productivity tools which seem incoherent, mad, and downright irrational. These techniques include: I expect many of you are already up in arms. It seems obvious that consistency is a virtue, that compartmentalization is a flaw, and that one should never modify their terminal goals. I claim that these 'obvious' objections are incorrect, and that all three of these techniques can be instrumentally rational. In this article, I'll promote the strategic cultivation of false beliefs and condone mindhacking on the values you hold most dear. Truly, these are Dark Arts. I aim to convince you that sometimes, the benefits are w

[Note: backported from LessWrong ] Note: the author now disclaims this post, and asserts that his past self was insufficiently skilled in the art of rationality to "take the good and discard the bad" even when you don't yet know how to justify it. You can, of course, get all the benefits described below, without once compromising your epistemics. Today, we're going to talk about Dark rationalist techniques: productivity tools which seem incoherent, mad, and downright irrational. These techniques include: Willful Inconsistency Intentional Compartmentalization Modifying Terminal Goals I expect m

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