Rationality
Because we should all strive to improve, here are some resources to help you become a more rational person. A good introduction can be found here: The Martial Art of Rationality
General Rationality Resources
- List of cognitive biases at Wikipedia
- List of Fallacies at Wikipedia
- List of common misconceptions at Wikipedia
- List of memory biases at Wikipedia
- The Relativity of Wrong by Isaac Asimov
- Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit
- List of Post Sequences at Less Wrong
- Biases in Estimating Probabilities compiled by the CIA
- Scientific Method at Wikipedia
- The Twelve Virtues of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Explanation of Tsuyoku Naritai by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- Intuitive Explanation of Bayesian Reasoning by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- Avoiding Your Belief’s Real Weak Points by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- Lost Purposes by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- Making Beliefs Pay Rent (in Anticipated Experiences) by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- The Affect Heuristic at by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- The Importance of Saying “Oops” by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- Cached Thoughts by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- “Science” as Curiosity-Stopper
- Two More Things to Unlearn from School by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- Raised in Technophilia by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- Crisis of Faith by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- Knowability Of Friendly AI by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- Which Parts are “Me”?
- Psychological Impact of a Large Connected World by Patri Friedman
- The Bad Guy Bias by Robin Hanson
- A Tale Of Two Tradeoffs by Robin Hanson
- Keep Your Identity Small by Paul Graham
- The Beauty of Settled Science by Eliezer_Yudkowsky
- Reversed Stupidity Is Not Intelligence by Eliezer_Yudkowsky
- The Fallacy of Gray by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- 14 Billion Cupcakes, Or: Why You Don’t Know What To Do With Your Life
In general, you should keep a close eye on Overcoming Bias and Less Wrong (read the archives!).
Some Things that I Wrote on Rationality
- Cognitive Bias: Monte Carlo Fallacy
- Cognitive Bias: Conjunction Fallacy
- Cognitive Bias: Planning Fallacy
- Cognitive Bias: Base-Rate Fallacy
- Cognitive Bias: Confirmation Bias
- The Individuals-as-Groups Fallacy
- Confirmation Bias at the Symphony
- Playing Cards
- Cognitive Bias: Kids Likely to Misperceived Own Weight if Surrounded by Obese Friends & Family
- Unintended Consequences
- Survivor Bias: Log Cabins, Classical Music, Etc.
- Miscalibrated Minds: Why Don’t We Apply What We Know About Twins to Everybody Else?
- Cognitive Bias: Halo Effect
- Cognitive Biases: Endowment Effect and Loss Aversion
Cognitive Biases & Politics
Here’s a trio of articles by Eliezer Yudkowsky about biases in U.S. politics (but insightful wherever you live):
Also about politics: Politics is the Mind-Killer.
Finally, some general advice: Try new things that challenge you, read books that are difficult but rewarding. Fail a lot. If you don’t fail once in a while, it means you aren’t really trying and you won’t learn that failing isn’t a big deal.
Quaerendo invenietis (By seeking, you will discover)
