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<h1>Best of Rationality Quotes</h1>
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<span class="votes ">75 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/dspeyer">dspeyer</a></strong></span>
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03 September 2014 05:06:19PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/kwd/rationality_quotes_september_2014/ba1o">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>A good rule of thumb might be, “If I added a zero to this number, would the sentence containing it mean something different to me?” If the answer is “no,” maybe the number has no business being in the sentence in the first place.</p></blockquote><p><a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/xkcd-randall-munroe-qanda-what-if/" rel="nofollow">Randall Munroe</a> on communicating with humans</p>
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<span class="votes ">70 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Alejandro1">Alejandro1</a></strong></span>
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01 September 2014 07:10:29PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/kwd/rationality_quotes_september_2014/b9v1">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>I’m always fascinated by the number of people who proudly build columns, tweets, blog posts or Facebook posts around the same core statement: “I don’t understand how anyone could (oppose legal abortion/support a carbon tax/sympathize with the Palestinians over the Israelis/want to privatize Social Security/insert your pet issue here)." It’s such an interesting statement, because it has three layers of meaning.</p><p>The first layer is the literal meaning of the words: <em>I lack the knowledge and understanding to figure this out.</em> But the second, intended meaning is the opposite: <em>I am such a superior moral being that I cannot even imagine the cognitive errors or moral turpitude that could lead someone to such obviously wrong conclusions.</em> And yet, the third, true meaning is actually more like the first: <em>I lack the empathy, moral imagination or analytical skills to attempt even a basic understanding of the people who disagree with me.</em></p><p>In short, “I’m stupid.” Something that few people would ever post so starkly on their Facebook feeds.</p></blockquote><p>--<a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-08-12/only-stupid-people-call-people-stupid" rel="nofollow">Megan McArdle</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">66 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/James_Miller">James_Miller</a></strong></span>
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05 September 2014 08:36:09PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/kwd/rationality_quotes_september_2014/badz">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>A skilled professional I know had to turn down an important freelance assignment because of a recurring commitment to chauffeur her son to a resumé-building “social action” assignment required by his high school. This involved driving the boy for 45 minutes to a community center, cooling her heels while he sorted used clothing for charity, and driving him back—forgoing income which, judiciously donated, could have fed, clothed, and inoculated an African village. The dubious “lessons” of this forced labor as an overqualified ragpicker are that children are entitled to treat their mothers’ time as worth nothing, that you can make the world a better place by destroying economic value, and that the moral worth of an action should be measured by the conspicuousness of the sacrifice rather than the gain to the beneficiary.</p></blockquote><p><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119321/harvard-ivy-league-should-judge-students-standardized-tests" rel="nofollow">Steven Pinker</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">61 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Alejandro1">Alejandro1</a></strong></span>
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04 January 2014 07:57:52PM
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<blockquote><p>My friend's kid explained The Hulk to me. She said he's a big green monster and when he needs to get things done, he turns into a scientist.</p></blockquote><p>--<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1ov84m/what_is_the_most_philosophical_thing_that_you/ccw6qqi" rel="nofollow">Shrtbuspdx</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">53 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/27chaos">27chaos</a></strong></span>
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01 December 2014 08:30:07PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/lc3/rationality_quotes_december_2014/bor0">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>If the real radical finds that having long hair sets up psychological barriers to communication and organization, he cuts his hair.</p></blockquote><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky" rel="nofollow">Saul Alinsky</a>, in his <a href="http://www.mynacc.org/Rules_for_Radicals.pdf" rel="nofollow"><em>Rules for Radicals</em></a>.</p><p>This one hit home for me. Got a haircut yesterday. :P</p>
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<span class="votes ">50 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/B_For_Bandana">B_For_Bandana</a></strong></span>
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02 September 2014 01:25:28AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/kwd/rationality_quotes_september_2014/b9w7">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>Always go to other people's funerals; otherwise they won't go to yours.</p></blockquote><p>Yogi Berra, on Timeless Decision Theory.</p>
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<span class="votes ">46 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Kaj_Sotala">Kaj_Sotala</a></strong></span>
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04 January 2014 08:03:06PM
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<blockquote><p>My 5 year old came to the dinner table, and calmly announced, "There is no Santa." I was puzzled because just couple of days ago he had taken his Christmas gift from Santa (though now that I think about it, he was not totally thrilled). So I asked why he thought so. He said, "Well, for Christmas I only got the gifts I told you about; I had gone to bed and told Santa himself what I wanted without telling you to see if he is real, and none of those came through - and I was a good boy all year!"</p><p>To be sure, I asked him, "But you saw Santa at the mall?" He laughed as hard as could be, then pointed out to me, "They are people in costumes!"</p></blockquote><p>-- <a href="http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-smartest-thing-youve-ever-heard-a-child-say/answer/Wen-Gong" rel="nofollow">Wen Gong</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">46 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Tyrrell_McAllister">Tyrrell_McAllister</a></strong></span>
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02 April 2014 05:53:47PM
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<p>The mathematician and Fields medalist Vladimir Voevodsky on using automated proof assistants in mathematics:</p><blockquote><p>[Following the discovery of some errors in his earlier work:] I think it was at this moment that I largely stopped doing what is called “curiosity driven research” and started to think seriously about the future.</p></blockquote><p>[...]</p><blockquote><p>A technical argument by a trusted author, which is hard to check and looks similar to arguments known to be correct, is hardly ever checked in detail.</p></blockquote><p>[...]</p><blockquote><p>It soon became clear that the only real long-term solution to the problems that I encountered is to start using computers in the verification of mathematical reasoning.</p></blockquote><p>[...]</p><blockquote><p>Among mathematicians computer proof verification was almost a forbidden subject. A conversation started about the need for computer proof assistants would invariably drift to the Goedel Incompleteness Theorem (which has nothing to do with the actual problem) or to one or two cases of verification of already existing proofs, which were used only to demonstrate how impractical the whole idea was.</p></blockquote><p>[...]</p><blockquote><p>I now do my mathematics with a proof assistant and do not have to worry all the time about mistakes in my arguments or about how to convince others that my arguments are correct.</p></blockquote><p>From a March 26, 2014 talk. Slides available <a href="http://www.math.ias.edu/~vladimir/Site3/Univalent_Foundations_files/2014_IAS.pdf" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p>
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<span class="votes ">45 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/nabeelqu">nabeelqu</a></strong></span>
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05 March 2014 10:56:01AM
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<blockquote><p>As burglars, they used some unusual techniques...During their casing, they had noticed that the interior door that opened to the draft board office was always locked. There was no padlock to replace...The break-in technique they settled on at that office must be unique in the annals of burglary. Several hours before the burglary was to take place, one of them wrote a note and tacked it to the door they wanted to enter: "Please don't lock this door tonight." Sure enough, when the burglars arrived that night, someone had obediently left the door unlocked. The burglars entered the office with ease, stole the Selective Service records, and left. They were so pleased with themselves that one of them proposed leaving a thank-you note on the door. More cautious minds prevailed. Miss Manners be damned, they did not leave a note.</p></blockquote><p>-- <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Burglary-Discovery-Hoovers-Secret/dp/0307962954/" rel="nofollow">Betty Medsger</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">44 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/dspeyer">dspeyer</a></strong></span>
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04 April 2014 02:26:23AM
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<p>"It is one thing for you to say, ‘Let the world burn.' It is another to say, ‘Let Molly burn.' The difference is all in the name."</p><p>-- Uriel, Ghost Story, Jim Butcher</p>
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<span class="votes ">43 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Stabilizer">Stabilizer</a></strong></span>
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05 January 2014 04:08:14PM
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<blockquote><p>This morning my daughter told me that she did well on a spelling test, but she got the easiest words wrong. Of course that’s not exactly true. The words that are hardest for her to spell are the ones she in fact did not spell correctly. She probably meant that she missed the words she felt should have been easy. Maybe they were short words. Children can be intimidated by long words, even though long words tend to be more regular and thus easier to spell.</p><p>Our perceptions of what is easy are often upside-down. We feel that some things should be easy even though our experience tells us otherwise.</p><p>Sometimes the trickiest parts of a subject come first, but we think that because they come first they should be easy. For example, force-body diagrams come at the beginning of an introductory physics class, but they can be hard to get right. Newton didn’t always get them right. More advanced physics, say celestial mechanics, is in some ways easier, or at least less error-prone.</p><p>“Elementary” and “easy” are not the same. Sometimes they’re opposites. Getting off the ground, so to speak, may be a lot harder than flying.</p></blockquote><p>-<a href="http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2013/11/06/i-got-the-easy-ones-wrong/" rel="nofollow">John D. Cook</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">43 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/satt">satt</a></strong></span>
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10 July 2014 11:17:19PM
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<blockquote><p>Charles II is said to have himself toyed with the philosophers, asking them to explain why a fish weighs more after it has died. Upon receiving various ingenious answers, he pointed out that in fact a dead fish does not weigh anything more.</p></blockquote><p>— Robert Pasnau, "<a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/why-not-just-weigh-the-fish/" rel="nofollow">Why Not Just Weigh the Fish?</a>"</p>
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<span class="votes ">43 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Zubon">Zubon</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
03 September 2014 10:47:34PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/kwd/rationality_quotes_september_2014/ba2z">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>Your younger nerd takes offense quickly when someone near him begins to utter declarative sentences, because he reads into it an assertion that he, the nerd, does not already know the information being imparted. But your older nerd has more self-confidence, and besides, understands that frequently people need to think out loud. And highly advanced nerds will furthermore understand that uttering declarative sentences whose contents are already known to all present is part of the social process of making conversation and therefore should not be construed as aggression under any circumstances.</p></blockquote><p>-- <em>Cryptonomicon</em> by Neal Stephenson</p>
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<span class="votes ">42 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/AspiringRationalist">AspiringRationalist</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
01 March 2014 10:10:34PM
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<blockquote><p>As the world becomes more addictive, the two senses in which one can live a normal life will be driven ever further apart. One sense of "normal" is statistically normal: what everyone else does. The other is the sense we mean when we talk about the normal operating range of a piece of machinery: what works best.</p><p>These two senses are already quite far apart. Already someone trying to live well would seem eccentrically abstemious in most of the US. That phenomenon is only going to become more pronounced. You can probably take it as a rule of thumb from now on that if people don't think you're weird, you're living badly.</p></blockquote><p>-- Paul Graham, <a href="http://paulgraham.com/addiction.html" rel="nofollow">The Acceleration of Addictiveness</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">42 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/WalterL">WalterL</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
01 December 2014 08:30:37PM
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<p>The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet.</p><p>-Damon Runyon</p>
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<span class="votes ">39 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/dspeyer">dspeyer</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
01 March 2014 06:43:02PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/jsm/rationality_quotes_march_2014/amzl">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>In our large, anonymous society, it's easy to forget moral and reputational pressures and concentrate on legal pressure and security systems. This is a mistake; even though our informal social pressures fade into the background, they're still responsible for most of the cooperation in society.</p></blockquote><ul><li>Bruce Schneier, expert in security systems</li></ul>
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<span class="votes ">38 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Gunnar_Zarncke">Gunnar_Zarncke</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
02 April 2014 11:21:01AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/jzn/rationality_quotes_april_2014/ardf">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.</p></blockquote><p>-- Alfred Adler</p><p>ADDED: Source: <a href="http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Adler" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Adler</a></p><p>Quoted in: Phyllis Bottome, Alfred Adler: Apostle of Freedom (1939), ch. 5</p><p>Problems of Neurosis: A Book of Case Histories (1929)</p>
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<span class="votes ">38 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Salemicus">Salemicus</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
04 September 2014 04:45:08PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/kwd/rationality_quotes_september_2014/ba5w">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>How to compose a successful critical commentary:</p><ol><li><p>You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.</p></li><li><p>You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).</p></li><li><p>You should mention anything you have learned from your target.</p></li><li><p>Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.</p></li></ol></blockquote><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Dennett" rel="nofollow">D.C. Dennett</a>, Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking. Dennett himself is summarising <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatol_Rapoport" rel="nofollow">Anatol Rapoport</a>.</p>
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<span class="votes ">38 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/michaelkeenan">michaelkeenan</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
01 September 2014 10:23:50PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/kwd/rationality_quotes_september_2014/b9vo">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>A raise is only a raise for thirty days; after that, it’s just your salary.</p></blockquote><p>-- David Russo</p>
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<span class="votes ">37 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Vulture">Vulture</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
05 January 2014 12:00:26AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/jfi/rationality_quotes_january_2014/aacq">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>I spent my childhood believing I was destined to be a hero</p><p>in some far off magic kingdom.</p><p>It was too late when I realized that I was needed here.</p></blockquote><p>--<a href="http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=832" rel="nofollow">A Softer World</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">37 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Pablo_Stafforini">Pablo_Stafforini</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
07 July 2014 10:28:26PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/kgb/rationality_quotes_july_2014/b2wg">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>Prediction, not narration, is the real test of our understanding of the world.</p></blockquote><p>Nassim Nicholas Taleb, <em>The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable</em>, New York, 2007, p. 133</p>
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<span class="votes ">37 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/dspeyer">dspeyer</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
01 November 2014 09:52:29PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/l72/rationality_quotes_november_2014/bjsy">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>It’s easier to bear in mind that the map is not the territory when you have two different maps.</p></blockquote><p>--Eric Raymond on <a href="http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=6491" rel="nofollow">the value of bilinguilism</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">37 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/James_Miller">James_Miller</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
02 November 2014 12:46:09AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/l72/rationality_quotes_november_2014/bjud">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>I want to get the most amount of candy with the least amount of walking.</p></blockquote><p>My 9-year-old son on Halloween.</p>
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<span class="votes ">36 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/aarongertler">aarongertler</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
05 February 2014 03:47:49AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/jm1/rationality_quotes_february_2014/ai1o">Permalink</a></span>
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<p>"The story of Japanese railways during the earthquake and tsunami is the story of an unceasing drumbeat of everything going right [...] The overwhelming response of Japanese engineering to the challenge posed by an earthquake larger than any in the last century was to function exactly as designed. Millions of people are alive right now because the system worked and the system worked and the system worked.</p><p>That this happened was, I say with no hint of exaggeration, one of the triumphs of human civilization. Every engineer in this country should be walking a little taller this week. We can’t say that too loudly, because it would be inappropriate with folks still missing and many families in mourning, but it doesn’t make it any less true."</p><p>--Patrick McKenzie, "Some Perspective on the Japan Earthquake"</p><p><a href="http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/03/13/some-perspective-on-the-japan-earthquake" rel="nofollow">http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/03/13/some-perspective-on-the-japan-earthquake</a></p><p>(Disaster is not inevitable.)</p>
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<span class="votes ">36 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong>[deleted]</strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
05 April 2014 05:45:29AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/jzn/rationality_quotes_april_2014/arxg">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>Philosophers often behave like little children who scribble some marks on a piece of paper at random and then ask the grown-up "What's that?"- It happened like this: the grown-up had drawn pictures for the child several times and said "this is a man," "this is a house," etc. And then the child makes some marks too and asks: what's this then?</p></blockquote><ul><li>Wittgenstein, Culture and Value </li></ul>
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<span class="votes ">35 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Ixiel">Ixiel</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
04 April 2014 11:14:37AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/jzn/rationality_quotes_april_2014/arrl">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>Slartibartfast: Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I think that the chances of finding out what's actually going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say, "Hang the sense of it," and keep yourself busy. I'd much rather be happy than right any day.</p><p>Arthur Dent: And are you?</p><p>Slartibartfast: Well... no. That's where it all falls down, of course.</p></blockquote><p>Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</p>
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<span class="votes ">34 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/johnlawrenceaspden">johnlawrenceaspden</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
03 May 2014 03:17:45PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/k5y/rationality_quotes_may_2014/avk9">Permalink</a></span>
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<p>When another asserted something that I thought an error, I deny'd myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appear'd or seem'd to me some difference, etc.</p><p>I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the conversations I engag'd in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I propos'd my opinions procur'd them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail'd with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right.</p><p>Benjamin Franklin</p>
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<span class="votes ">34 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Manfred">Manfred</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
04 November 2014 02:54:10AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/l72/rationality_quotes_november_2014/bk6w">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>In fiction, villains start with some great scheme to do something awesome, and that immediately makes them fascinating to the reader. The hero - if you're doing this poorly - sits at home and just waits for the villain to do something awesome so they can respond. This is a problem. The solution is for your heroes to have a great and awesome scheme also, that just isn't evil.</p></blockquote><p><a href="http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/05/06/writing-excuses-7-19-qa-at-uvu/" rel="nofollow">Brandon Sanderson</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">33 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Jayson_Virissimo">Jayson_Virissimo</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
09 July 2014 05:01:31AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/kgb/rationality_quotes_july_2014/b38f">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>We have to reinvent the wheel every once in a while, not because we need a lot of wheels; but because we need a lot of inventors.</p></blockquote><p>-- Bruce Joyce, as quoted by Michael Serra in <em>Discovering Geometry</em></p>
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<span class="votes ">32 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/lmm">lmm</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
03 June 2014 11:44:56AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/kap/rationality_quotes_june_2014/aym2">Permalink</a></span>
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<p>"I just don't have enough data to make a decision."</p><p>"Yes, you do. What you don't have is enough data for you not to have to make one"</p><p><a href="http://old.onefte.com/2011/03/08/you-have-a-decision-to-make/" rel="nofollow">http://old.onefte.com/2011/03/08/you-have-a-decision-to-make/</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">32 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/AspiringRationalist">AspiringRationalist</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
07 July 2014 12:50:45AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/kgb/rationality_quotes_july_2014/b2qy">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>Precise forecasts masquerade as accurate ones.</p></blockquote><p>-- Nate Silver, <em>The Signal and the Noise</em></p>
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<span class="votes ">32 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/grendelkhan">grendelkhan</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
04 December 2014 09:48:07PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/lc3/rationality_quotes_december_2014/bpdi">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid.</p></blockquote><p>"Murphy's Laws of Combat"</p>
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<span class="votes ">31 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/EGarrett">EGarrett</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
05 February 2014 01:34:22AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/jm1/rationality_quotes_february_2014/ai11">Permalink</a></span>
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<p>"To convince someone of the truth, it is not enough to state it, but rather one must find the path from error to truth."
Wittgenstein. "Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough," p. 119</p>
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<span class="votes ">31 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/James_Miller">James_Miller</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
01 June 2014 09:20:25PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/kap/rationality_quotes_june_2014/ayf8">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>"Do what you love" / "Follow your passion" is dangerous and destructive career advice. We tend to hear it from (a) Highly successful people who (b) Have become successful doing what they love. The problem is that we do NOT hear from people who have failed to become successful by doing what they love. Particularly pernicious problem in tournament-style fields with a few big winners lots of losers: media, athletics, startups. Better career advice may be "Do what contributes" -- focus on the beneficial value created for other people vs just one's own ego. People who contribute the most are often the most satisfied with what they do -- and in fields with high renumeration, make the most $. Perhaps difficult advice since requires focus on others vs oneself -- perhaps bad fit with endemic narcissism in modern culture? Requires delayed gratification -- may toil for many years to get the payoff of contributing value to the world, vs short-term happiness.</p></blockquote><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/andreessen-whatever-you-do-dont-follow-your-passion-2014-5" rel="nofollow">Marc Andreessen</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">31 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/VAuroch">VAuroch</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
11 November 2014 07:02:18AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/l72/rationality_quotes_november_2014/bl5a">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>“There is no point in using the word 'impossible' to describe something that has clearly happened.”</p></blockquote><p>-- Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams</p>
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<span class="votes ">31 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/bramflakes">bramflakes</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
03 December 2014 03:56:16PM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/lc3/rationality_quotes_december_2014/bp4w">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>When you hear an economist on TV "explain" the decline in stock prices by citing a slump in the market (and I have heard this pseudo-explanation more than once) it is time to turn off the television.</p></blockquote><p>Thomas J. McKay, <em>Reasons, Explanations and Decisions</em></p>
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<span class="votes ">31 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Jay_Schweikert">Jay_Schweikert</a></strong></span>
<span class="comment-author">
03 December 2014 04:40:11AM
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<span class="comment-author"><a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/lc3/rationality_quotes_december_2014/bp38">Permalink</a></span>
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<blockquote><p>All the logical work (if not all the rhetorical work) in “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” is being done by the decision about what aspects of liberty are essential, and how much safety is at stake. The slogan might work as a reminder not to make foolish tradeoffs, but the real difficulty is in deciding which tradeoffs are wise and which are foolish. Once we figure that out, we don’t need the slogan to remind us; before we figure it out, the slogan doesn’t really help us.</p></blockquote><p>--Eugene Volokh, "<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/11/11/liberty-safety-and-benjamin-franklin/" rel="nofollow">Liberty, safety, and Benjamin Franklin</a>"</p><p>A good example of the risk of reading too much into slogans that are basically just <a href="http://lesswrong.com/lw/jb/applause_lights/">applause lights</a>. Also reminds me of "<a href="http://yudkowsky.net/other/fiction/the-sword-of-good" rel="nofollow">The Choice between Good and Bad is not a matter of saying Good! It is about deciding which is which.</a>"</p>
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<span class="votes ">30 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/MattG">MattG</a></strong></span>
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10 March 2014 08:57:46PM
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<p>"Consider the people who routinely disagree with you. See how confident they look while being dead wrong? That’s exactly how you look to them." - Scott Adams</p>
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<span class="votes ">30 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Jack_LaSota">Jack_LaSota</a></strong></span>
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11 October 2014 04:18:21AM
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<p>A novice asked master Banzen: “What separates the monk from the master?”</p><p>Banzen replied: “Ten thousand mistakes!”</p><p>The novice, not understanding, sought to avoid all error. An abbot observed and brought the novice to Banzen for correction.</p><p>Banzen explained: “I have made ten thousand mistakes; Suku has made ten thousand mistakes; the patriarchs of Open Source have each made ten thousand mistakes.”</p><p>Asked the novice: “What of the old monk who labors in the cubicle next to mine? Surely he has made ten thousand mistakes.”</p><p>Banzen shook his head sadly. “Ten mistakes, a thousand times each.”</p><p><a href="http://thecodelesscode.com/case/100" rel="nofollow">The Codeless Code</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">30 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/arundelo">arundelo</a></strong></span>
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03 December 2014 12:06:10AM
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<blockquote><p>Problem is, "Fucking up when presented with surprising new situations" is actually a <em>chronic human behavior</em>.
It's why purse snatchers are so effective -- by the time someone
registers <em>Wait, did somebody just yank my purse off my shoulder?</em>,
the snatcher is long gone.</p></blockquote><p>-- <a href="http://theferrett.livejournal.com/1969866.html" rel="nofollow">Ferrett Steinmetz</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">29 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Kaj_Sotala">Kaj_Sotala</a></strong></span>
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01 March 2014 05:52:25PM
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<blockquote><p>The use with children of experimental [educational] methods, that is, methods that have not been finally assessed and found effective, might seem difficult to justify. Yet the traditional methods we use in the classroom every day have exactly this characteristic--they are highly experimental in that we know very little about their educational efficacy in comparison with alternative methods. There is widespread cynicism among students and even among practiced teachers about the effectiveness of lecturing or repetitive drill (which we would distinguish from carefully designed practice), yet these methods are in widespread use. Equally troublesome, new "theories" of education are introduced into schools every day (without labeling them as experiments) on the basis of their philosophical or common-sense plausibility but without genuine empirical support. We should make a larger place for responsible experimentation that draws on the available knowledge--it deserves at least as large a place as we now provide for faddish, unsystematic and unassessed informal "experiments" or educational "reforms."</p></blockquote><p>-- John R. Anderson, Lynne M. Reder Herbert A. Simon: <a href="http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/papers/misapplied.html" rel="nofollow">Applications and Misapplications of Cognitive Psychology to Mathematics Education</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">29 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Benito">Benito</a></strong></span>
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08 August 2014 09:35:08PM
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<blockquote><p>Hollywood is filled with feel-good messages about how robotic logic is no match for fuzzy, warm, human irrationality, and how the power of love will overcome pesky obstacles such as a malevolent superintelligent computer. Unfortunately there isn’t a great deal of cause to think this is the case, any more than there is that noble gorillas can defeat evil human poachers with the power of chest-beating and the ability to use rudimentary tools.</p></blockquote><p>From the British Newspaper 'The Telegraph', and their <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tomchiversscience/100282568/a-robot-thats-smarter-than-us-theres-one-big-problem-with-that/" rel="nofollow">article</a> on Nick Bostrom's awesome new book '<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Superintelligence-Dangers-Strategies-Nick-Bostrom/dp/0199678111/" rel="nofollow">Superintelligence</a>'.</p><p>I just thought it was a great analogy. Nice to see AI as an X-Risk in the mainstream media too.</p>
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<span class="votes ">29 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/KPier">KPier</a></strong></span>
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27 September 2014 02:51:51AM
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<p>A shipowner was about to send to sea an emigrant-ship. He know that she was old, and not over-well built at the first; that she had seen many seas and climes, and often had needed repairs. Doubts had been suggested to him that possibly she was not seaworthy. These doubts preyed upon his mind and made him unhappy; he thought that perhaps he ought to have her thoroughly overhauled and refitted, even though this should put him to great expense. Before the ship sailed, however, he succeeded in overcoming these melancholy reflections. He said to himself that she had gone safely though so many voyages and weathered so many storms, that it was idle to suppose she would not come safely home from this trip also. He would put his trust in Providence, which could hardly fail to protect all these unhappy families that were leaving their fatherland to seek for better times elsewhere. He would dismiss from his mind all ungenerous suspicions about the honesty of builders and contractors. In such a way he acquired a sincere and comfortable conviction that his vessel was thoroughly safe and seaworthy; he watched her depature with a light heart, and benevolent wishes for the success of the exiles in their strange new home that was to be; and he got his insurance-money when she went down in mid-ocean and told no tales.</p><p>What shall we say of him? Surely this, that he was verily guilty of the death of those men. It is admitted that he did sincerely believe in the soundness of his ship, but the sincerity of his conviction can in nowise help him, because he had no right to believe on such evidence as was before him. He had acquired his belief not by honestly earning it in patient investigation, but by stifling his doubts.</p><ul><li>W.J. Clifford, the Ethics of Belief</li></ul>
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<span class="votes ">29 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/lukeprog">lukeprog</a></strong></span>
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04 October 2014 09:28:52PM
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<blockquote><p>Prominent altruists aren't the people who have a larger care-o-meter, they're the people who have learned not to trust their care-o-meters... Nobody has [a care-o-meter] capable of faithfully representing the scope of the world's problems. But the fact that you can't <em>feel</em> the caring doesn't mean that you can't <em>do</em> the caring.</p></blockquote><p><a href="http://mindingourway.com/on-caring/" rel="nofollow">Nate Soares</a></p>
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<span class="votes ">28 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/dspeyer">dspeyer</a></strong></span>
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01 September 2014 05:36:19PM
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<blockquote><p>Alex Jordan, a grad student at Stanford, came up with the idea of asking people to make moral judgments while he secretly tripped their disgust alarms. He stood at a pedestrian intersection on the Stanford campus and asked passersby to fill out a short survey. It asked people to make judgments about four controversial issues, such as marriage between first cousins, or a film studio’s decision to release a documentary with a director who had tricked some people into being interviewed. Alex stood right next to a trash can he had emptied. Before he recruited each subject, he put a new plastic liner into the metal can. Before half of the people walked up (and before they could see him), he sprayed the fart spray twice into the bag, which “perfumed” the whole intersection for a few minutes. Before other recruitments, he left the empty bag unsprayed. Sure enough, people made harsher judgments when they were breathing in foul air</p></blockquote><p>-- The Righteous Mind Ch 3, Jonathan Haidt</p><p>I wonder if anyone who needs to make important judgments a lot makes an actual effort to maintain affective hygiene. It seems like a really good idea, but poor signalling.</p>
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<span class="votes ">28 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Azathoth123">Azathoth123</a></strong></span>
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02 November 2014 01:13:34AM
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<blockquote><p><strong>Base Commander</strong>: Anything I do at this point will only make things worse. Anything! <br /></br><strong>Chief of Police</strong>: Many people would charge in anyway. <br /></br><strong>Base Commander</strong>: Oh, the urge to do something during an emergency is very strong. It takes training and discipline to do nothing.</p></blockquote><p><a href="http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2600/fc02567.htm" rel="nofollow">Freefall</a> by Mark Stanley.</p>
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<span class="votes ">27 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/jazmt">jazmt</a></strong></span>
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20 January 2014 02:56:07AM
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<p>Train your tongue to say "I don't know", lest you be brought to falsehood
-Babylonian Talmud</p>
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<span class="votes ">27 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/brainoil">brainoil</a></strong></span>
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04 February 2014 12:32:52AM
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<p>"Nothing exists in contradiction to nature, only in contradiction to what we know of it." - Dana Scully, The X-Files</p>
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<span class="votes ">27 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Jayson_Virissimo">Jayson_Virissimo</a></strong></span>
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04 February 2014 05:26:01AM
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<blockquote><p>Shit, if I took time out to have an opinion about everything, I wouldn't get any work done...</p></blockquote><p>-- L. Bob Rife, <em>Snow Crash</em></p>
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<span class="votes ">27 points</span>
<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Thomas">Thomas</a></strong></span>
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01 March 2014 04:29:55PM
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<blockquote><p>He says we could learn a lot from primitive tribes. But they could learn a lot more from us!</p></blockquote><ul><li>Jeremy Clarkson</li></ul>
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<span class="comment-author"><strong><a href="http://lesswrong.com/user/Stabilizer">Stabilizer</a></strong></span>
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02 March 2014 12:11:14AM
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<blockquote><p>Procrastination is the thief of compound interest.</p></blockquote><p>-<a href="https://twitter.com/vgr/status/426495061040168960" rel="nofollow">Venkatesh Rao</a></p>
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