New Rationality Blog: 'Measure of Doubt'

post by lukeprog · 2011-04-01T20:11:37.523Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 6 comments

Contents

6 comments

Measure of Doubt is a new rationality blog from Julia and Jesse Galef (a sister-brother team), aimed at a much broader audience than Less Wrong.

Julia is the author of the recently-linked article Are Intuitions Good Evidence? and many other writings. I know less about Jesse, but I can say a bit more about Julia. She co-hosts the Rationally Speaking podcast with philosopher-biologist Massimo Pigliucci. She writes quite a bit about becoming more rational, dissolving Big Questions, and wanting to change your mind. Her video on different definitions of 'rationality' distinguishes Hollywood rationality, epistemic rationality, and instrumental rationality. She explains the mirror paradox ala Gary Drescher in Good and Real. She blogged Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

I suspect Less Wrong readers will enjoy Measure of Doubt, and will find it a useful place to send people who don't have the patience to read the Less Wrong Sequences and long posts about Bayesian updating and the relevance of universe-simulation arguments to decision theory.

6 comments

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comment by Julia_Galef · 2011-04-01T20:53:58.167Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Hey, thanks for the shoutout! @SilasBarta -- Yeah, I first encountered the mirror paradox in G&R, but I ended up explaining it differently than Drescher did, drawing on Gardner as well as some discussions with a friend, so I didn't end up quoting Drescher after all. I do like his explanation, though.

comment by JesseGalef · 2011-04-02T01:49:50.240Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Allow me to echo Julia's thanks!

Dreaded Anomaly is right; LW has had a significant influence on me, particularly the "A Human's Guide to Words" sequence. I drew from it heavily in a talk I gave on effective communicating, and it'll be prominent in a few other talks coming up.

I'm aiming to do more LW-esque posts (beyond things like basic recaps of the map-territory.) Looking forward to your feedback!

comment by Dreaded_Anomaly · 2011-04-01T21:13:15.628Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Thanks for the link. I am finding it useful and enjoyable!

Also, Julia and Jesse do appear to be familiar with LW content beyond just MoR, see e.g. Jesse's post Why Asking Why Isn't Enough which links to Explain/Worship/Ignore?.

Edit: and as I was writing this, Julia posted below me.

comment by ata · 2011-04-02T02:04:06.881Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Nifty. I know I've heard of both Julia and Jesse, I think I've read some of Julia's posts on Rationally Speaking, but I'm looking forward to reading (and sharing) more from both of them.

comment by SilasBarta · 2011-04-01T20:44:23.128Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

She explains the mirror paradox ala Gary Drescher in Good and Real.

ala Drescher, but not referencing his work. I mentioned his usage of it in G&R and the context of his point in a comment I just submitted.

comment by XiXiDu · 2011-04-02T11:13:34.933Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Someone get them to treat charitable giving and risks from AI. I guess their rationality will be measured by how they decide on that one issue in the end. It always comes down to that here ;-)