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):

• The Two-Party Swindle
• The American System and Misleading Labels
• Stop Voting For Nincompoops

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)