Are you rational enough

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The development of rational thinking will help you approach solving problems with a cool head and find a way out of the confusing situations that life periodically throws at us. The article presents a list of the main characteristics of a person who thinks rationally. Based on it, you can make your own list of those qualities that you would like to develop in yourself, and track your progress.

This is not a test to determine the degree of your rationality. The article is intended so that you can note for yourself what habits of a rational person you would like to develop.

When reviewing each item, you can ask yourself the question: "When was the last time I did this?"

Possible answers are never, today / yesterday, last week, last month, last year, more than a year ago.

To clarify each point, the article presents real-life examples from the life of the creators and users of the LessWrong (LW) blog, dedicated to the development of rational thinking.

1. How do you react to facts / surprises / arguments

A. When you are faced with something strange, if something does not go as you expected, you easily notice it, pay special attention to it and think, “I am confused. It looks like something is wrong. Or something similar.

For example, you have a flight scheduled for Thursday. On Tuesday, you receive an email from Travelocity advising you to prepare for tomorrow's trip. Do you pay close attention to this discrepancy? In such a situation, one of the LW users did not notice the confusion and missed his flight.

B. When someone talks about something that is difficult for you to understand or imagine, you pay attention to it and ask for an example.

Eliezer: “One mathematics student talked about what his group was studying at the time. He mentioned the word "stack". I asked him for an example of a stack. I was told that the stack is formed from integers. Then I asked for an example of what is not a stack."

Anna: “A friend said her boyfriend was being 'too competitive'. I asked to explain what it means. It turned out that when her boyfriend was driving and someone next to him started the car, he definitely needed to get off first. If he is in the passenger seat and the driver does not do the same, he just goes berserk."

V. When, instead of considering all the options, you start looking for arguments in favor of what is most convenient for you, you note it and make a note to yourself that this is the wrong strategy.

Anna: “I caught myself finding reasons to entrust the purchase of clothes for myself to someone else. Instead, I might have wondered if it would be easier to do it myself."

G. You notice when you start to avoid any unpleasant thoughts for you, and you conclude that you need to think carefully about the reason for this behavior.

Anna: “When I’m not at ease, I try to make others think they’ve made a mistake somewhere. This makes me feel less vulnerable. I see that this is the wrong strategy of behavior. But in order to realize this and formulate for myself what exactly I am doing wrong, it took me a lot of effort."

D. You deliberately try to take into account not only the good news, but also the bad news, or at least not neglect the latter.

Eliezer: “In preparation for the upcoming Singularity Summits, we had a brainstorming session, during which it turned out that we had not paid due attention to funding issues at past summits. My brain began to resist negative information, so I consciously forced myself to remember that bad news is good too. I paraphrased this principle as follows: “Yes, it is, but despite this fact, over the past years we have managed to collect a certain amount of money. Therefore, it is good that we have now paid attention to this problem. So we can adjust the development strategy and correct our mistakes next year. ""

2. Do you know how to analyze and question someone else's opinion

A. You notice when for some reason you avoid an objective assessment of the situation.

Anna: “Usually I find myself in the fact that when I am criticized, mentally I first take a defensive position. Then I imagine the option in which this criticism is unfair, and the option in which it is justified. This helps me to look at the situation more objectively.

For example, we were once criticized for not providing adequate preliminary information on statistics collected for Rationality Minicamp. I could start to look for excuses and convince myself that I could not have done this task better, given how many other things I had to do. On the other hand, I could imagine how it could be done better. That way I could switch my brain to more successful behaviors in the future. The second option turned out to be much more useful. It helps to get out of the “I am not guilty of anything” regime into the “How to do it differently?” Regime”.

B. You analyze what is really behind your ideas, emotions and habits and what caused them to form. With this analysis, you do not allow your consciousness to start looking for excuses for your thoughts and actions, or give up those excuses that do not correspond to the true reasons for your behavior.

Anna: “When it turned out that we could not hold Minicamp in the place we were counting on, I found hundreds of reasons to blame everyone who managed to shoot this place before us. I soon realized what was the main reason for my resentment. I was simply afraid that as a result I would be criticized for exceeding the planned costs."

V. For every abstract argument or rule, you try to find a concrete example.

If someone is talking about a rule that applies to all integers, why not try testing it against a specific number, like 17?

If your roommate's untidiness bothers you a lot, try to think of a specific time he made the mess and ponder what exactly caused you the particular inconvenience.

G. When you try to dismiss one of the hypotheses using certain facts, you imagine a variant in which the first hypothesis turns out to be true, and you check how these facts support this hypothesis. Then you imagine another option, in which the second hypothesis is valid, and check if the same facts look more plausible in this case.

Take the Amanda Knox case, for example. Returning to the cell after many hours of interrogation at the police station, Amanda made a “wheel” several times and sat on the twine. The prosecutor considered that in this way she celebrated the murder. Why not try to challenge this statement and imagine a situation in which the fact described above would testify in favor of the innocence of the defendant? Or, perhaps, it is worthwhile to first imagine that the detainee is guilty, and then - that she was not involved in the crime. Then you can ask yourself the question: what is the likelihood that a guilty / innocent person of a crime will make a "wheel" during imprisonment? Which option is more plausible?

D. You deliberately try to evaluate only the most likely options and test them with specific evidence.

Eliezer: “When talking about the scientific nature of parapsychology, I used the following argument. I said that in order for me to seriously consider the possibility of the real existence of parapsychological phenomena, their statistical probability must be much higher. If there is no statistically significant data confirming the existence of these phenomena, then I will not even waste time discussing this issue."

E. When you are faced with facts that do not seem weighty enough to you to significantly change your ideas or your behavior, but at the same time they are sufficiently concrete evidence of something that lies outside your usual ideas, you try to expand these at least a little. representation.

Anna: “I realized that perhaps I am not as good a driver as I thought I was when my rearview mirror was broken. Even though I did not violate any traffic rules and, in all likelihood, it was the fault of another driver, this incident was much more likely to happen in the case where I drive badly."

3. Do you know how to cope with internal conflicts

A. You notice when your conscious part comes into conflict with emotional experiences (for example, when habitual fears and common sense are fighting in you). When this happens, you pause and ask yourself what you really need to listen to.

Anna: “When I decided to jump from the roof of the Stratosphere Las Vegas hotel, I knew that nothing threatened my safety. I knew that 40,000 people had already made such jumps and remained alive and well. But in order to fully understand this, I had to imagine twice how all the students in my college jump down and stay alive."

B. When faced with a tough choice, you try to frame the problem in a way that gets rid of old prejudices that get in the way, or at least not dwell on them.

Anna: “My brother, a programmer, was pondering whether he should move to Silicon Valley to find a higher-paying job there. He tried to formulate the problem differently and asked himself the question: if he already lived in Silicon Valley, he would agree to move to Santa Barbara with his college friends and receive $ 70,000 less there (of course not).

V. When you face a difficult choice, you check which arguments are more related to the past and require certain conclusions, and which ones directly relate to the consequences of a future decision.

Eliezer: “I was concerned about the quality of my sleep and bought a $ 1,500 mattress from an online store that was not refundable. It cost me less than a mattress, which I already tried in a store nearby. When I slept on this mattress several times, I realized that it was not very comfortable. But I hesitated to spend even more money on a new mattress. Then I reminded myself that these 1,500 dollars cannot be returned, but I still want to get enough sleep."

4. What do you do when you realize that you are at an impasse

A. If someone disagrees with your point of view, you build up your opponent's guess to its logical conclusion to see if these disagreements really have a right to exist.

Michael Smith: “When someone expressed concern that rationality training might be a simple scam, I asked him to imagine the possible negative consequences of taking such training. The opponent did not find what to answer, and the question was settled."

B. You try to test any assumptions in practice in order to come to a solution that seems satisfactory to you (if it is related to your internal contradictions) or will be approved by your friends or colleagues (if the problem is discussed in a group).

This ended the ongoing debate over what to call the current Center for Applied Rationality. The founders simply asked 120 people which of the proposed names for the center the respondents found the most successful.

V. If you find yourself fixated on a certain concept, you mentally put it under a ban, that is, avoid thinking about the word denoting this concept, its synonyms and similar concepts. For example, if you are constantly wondering if you are smart enough, if your girlfriend is reckless, or if you are trying to do the right thing, then you use this principle.

Anna: “I advised my friend to stop worrying about how justified his actions or the actions of other people are. He replied that he was just trying to figure out how to do the right thing. I suggested that he stop using the word “try” and think about how his thinking actually works and what is really right for him."

5. Do you note for yourself which of your habits require revision?

A. When you decide whether it's worth exploring something that causes you doubts or trying something new, you are weighing how much the result of these actions will ultimately increase your effectiveness.

Eliezer: “Thanks to active pressure from Anna, after several months of procrastination, I finally tried writing lyrics with a partner. It turned out that my productivity literally quadrupled (if we count the number of words written per day)."

B. You evaluate the scale of the potential consequences of your decisions: how quickly and how strong they can manifest themselves.

Anna: “When we entrusted a certain person to conduct a survey on choosing the name of the Center, I was worried that someone else who was not given such an assignment might be offended. I had to force myself to mentally assess what the likelihood is that this will actually happen, how much this person could be offended and how long he would have held this offense. Only after realizing that the possible consequences are not worth a damn, I was able to calm down."

Another example: a person is about to change jobs and is worried about what his parents will think about it. To understand that the parents' opinion should not be a decisive factor when deciding to move to another place, he must mentally assess how much his parents will really be upset if he does, how long they will get used to this fact. etc.

6. Is it easy for you to change your habits and behaviors?

A. You notice when your thoughts make you avoid certain actions.

Anna: “Once I noticed that every time I click on the“Submit”button, I imagine all possible negative responses that I can get to this message, or imagine that after sending something, it will definitely go wrong. It seemed that every time I pressed this button, I got a mini-shock with an electric shock. Then I decided to put an end to these blows and taught myself to smile every time I press this unfortunate button. It helped me to shake things up and stop procrastinating mail-related matters for later."

B. You use the help of friends or other communication-related self-control.

Anna: “I drink grapefruit juice, it helps my brain work better. At the end of the work, I had some juice left. I jokingly told a colleague that if I didn't drink it now, it would go bad. So I caught myself drinking the juice only out of greed."

Eliezer: “When I had problems with insomnia, I told Anna how I tried to come up with excuses for myself why I couldn't go to bed on time. Together with my friend Luke, I came up with a system for myself, according to which in a special magazine I marked with a plus every time I managed to go to bed at the scheduled time, and a minus - when I failed."

V. You use small rewards to help you form a new habit.

Eliezer: “Many people have noticed that I have become much kinder and nicer after I took the habit of rewarding myself with a smile or M & M's for complimenting other people a few months ago. I just decided to casually voice any positive thoughts that came to mind about the people around me, and that's what it led to."

Anna: “Yesterday I noticed that I did a few small, insignificant tasks, while I had more important things to do. Noticing mistakes is a healthy habit, so I decided to reward myself with a smile or mental strokes on my head. So, instead of self-flagellation, I learned to reward myself with signs of approval."

G. You realize that you do not have legendary willpower, and you try to keep track of what exactly influences your behavior and control this influence.

Alicorn: "I am not interested in the position of politicians on the issue of arms control, because I know that I react very emotionally to the discussion of a topic that I consider unacceptable in its essence."

Anna: "I paid a friend to make me write in my diary every day."

D. You know how to look at the situation and yourself in this situation from the outside.

Anna: “I usually call my parents once a week, but for the last couple of weeks I haven’t done that. I told myself that I won't call my parents today either, because I'm too busy. And then I tried to look at this situation from the outside and realized that I didn't have so many things to do, and tomorrow I definitely won't be freer."