Help us name the Sequences ebook

My motley collection of thoughts upon reading this (please note that, wherever I say "you" or "your" in this post, I'm referring to the whole committee that is working on this ebook, not to you, lukeprog, in particular):

• It's a difficult book to name, chiefly because the sequences themselves don't really have a narrow common thread; eliminating bias and making use of scientific advances don't qualify as narrow enough, many others are trying to do that these days. (But then again, I didn't read them in an orderly fashion, or enough times, to be able to identify the common thread if there is one more specific than that. If there is one, by all means, play on that.)

• Absolutely no mention of anything such as The Less Wrong Sequences, 2006-2009. This belongs in a blurb or in an introduction to the book. You probably think that, by using that in a title, you're telling readers the following: the contents of this book were originally published as sequences of blog posts on the website lesswrong.com, from 2006 to 2009. But you're not. This information can be conveyed in a sentence such as that one, but it cannot be conveyed in a short title, given that readers are unfamiliar with the terms. There isn't really a way for them to guess from a quick glance at the title that "Less Wrong" means "the website "LessWrong.com" or that "the Sequences" mean "several series of blog posts around which the LessWrong community was formed", or what all of that has to do with them.

• And even so -- is that the first thing you wish to tell your readers? What happened to the contents of the book before they were made into a book...? And in a form which is basically incomprehensible to them? While giving little insight into the content itself? And do you really, honestly think that you're not doing the material a disservice by telling the readers that it was first published on some guy's blog, before they know anything else about the book (i.e. how it distinguishes itself from ordinary blog posts)? If the first association is with something as low-status as a blog, then that's gonna be the lowest common denominator -- you're gonna have to work up from that, which is harder than working up from the expectation of an average pop-sci book. (Thankfully for you, though, the readers won't be able to draw those inferences; see the paragraph above.)

• The rest of the suggestions -- The Craft of Rationality, The Art of Rationality, Becoming Less Wrong -- they're not technically bad, but... they're -- they're weak. They're not distinguishable. The authors out there that are trying to establish themselves as the masters of the "art/craft" of something are a dime a dozen. Sure, probably LWers are probably the most eager bunch to claim "the art of rationality" for themselves, or at least this is what a quick internet search told me, but the connection isn't immediately established in the minds of the readers.

• Careful about any unflattering allusions to the reader's intelligence. They can be taken well if presented in a humorous/witty form, but you have to make believable promises that the book will help readers overcome them. Also (and this is directed mainly towards the rest of the commenters), everything that suggests that the book is meant to drill the "correct" ideas into your head, rather than teach you how to develop good thinking practices on your own, is a no-no.

• How come Eliezer hasn't come up with a good, catchy title yet? I've just gone over the titles of the blog posts included in the sequences, and those ones are very good, very appropriate as chapter/subchapter titles. He's good at this titling business. Surely he could think up something witty for the one title to rule them all?

• No suggestions from me just yet. I need to think this through better.

Why not call the e-book "The Methods of Rationality"?

Or maybe something that is clearly not HPMoR, but clearly connected to it.

Why should the term "the sequences" even be in the title? What does it tell an uninformed reader? Does it have any useful meaning for anyone who hasn't already read them? (Why are they even called that, anyway? I mean... I guess it's just that it was a sequence of blog posts?) In what way is "The Sequences" or "[Some title]: the Sequences" better than "The Blog Posts" or "The Diary Entries"?

[Meta]

I don't think asking people already on LW is a good technique for getting a title that will likely attract new people. We would likely reference terms that only make sense to those who have already read them (indeed a lot of the suggestions so far are rationalist shibboleths/applause lights/puns, which are fun for us but unhelpful). And we know al the evidence about how bad people in general are at simulating other very different minds unless they have particular expertise.

Very few people here likely have the relevant expertise in marketing. Have you considered asking an outside specialist? A good title and marketing can make an orders of magnitude difference in impact (with the obvious implications for spreading ideas better).

Eliezer's first post on Overcoming Bias was, as far as I know, The Martial Art of Rationality. I think that title works well to set the tone.

As everyone else says, take "Sequences" out of the title. ("The Sequences: 2006-2009" is a strong contender for Worst Book Title Ever unless you want no one other than existing LWers to read it, and anyone who has advised you otherwise should never again be asked for book-naming advice.)

"Rationality" is probably too cumbersome a word (possible exception: what if that were the whole title?); "thinking" or "thought" or "reason" might be OK.

"How to Win"? (I worry that that's dishonest; it's insufficiently well established so far that rationalists -- in the sense of people who think in the ways Eliezer advises -- do actually win in the real world.)

"Thinking: right and wrong"? (Riffing off Kahneman's title, of course. Might be mistaken for a political book -- indeed, it wouldn't be a bad title for a smug conservative/libertarian treatise.)

[EDITED to fix a typo.]

Will it contain non-Eliezer content, e.g. Diseased Thinking, or Ugh Fields? Bikeshedding, I know, but those are some mighty fine posts.

Okay, anywho, thinking hat on.

Answering Confusing Questions
Making New Mistakes
Understanding the Void

(People in this world look at things mistakenly, and think that what they do not understand must be the void. This is not the true void. It is bewilderment. - Miyamoto Musashi)

The Use of Maps
Rationality and Contentment in a Suboptimal World
Already in Reality
If Snow is White, That's Okay
The Hard Part is Actually Changing Your Mind

Is it helpful for the phrase "The Sequences" to appear in the title? My sense is that anyone who's already familiar enough with the Sequences to know what it means isn't going to need that phrase to be interested in the book, and that the phrase doesn't add much value for someone who's never heard of the Sequences before. It's sort of a weird word that doesn't immediately suggest anything about rationality.

The only people for whom it would add value would be those who (1) have at least sort of heard of the Sequences and are somewhat interested; (2) need to know that this ebook is about the Sequences to decide to read it; and (3) wouldn't understand that this was the Sequences ebook without that word in the title. I doubt that's a very large class, so my initial sense is that it's not necessary in the actual title. But then, that's just what occurred to me in the last 10 minutes, and the people who have thought about this more carefully may well have other reasons.

Rationality: How to Become Less Wrong.

From Zombies to Artificial Intelligence: Thinking Clearly About Truth, Morality and Winning in This And Other Worlds.

"Becoming Less Wrong" would normally be a good title, but unfortunately, there already exists a community of people who call themselves "Less Wrong". This changes the meaning of the title from "Acquiring good critical thinking skills" to "One of us... One of us...". Thus, I'd recommend against it.

Update. My favorites from this page are:

• The Hard Part is Actually Changing Your Mind
• From Artificial Intelligence to Zombies: Thinking Clearly about Truth, Value, and Winning
• Modern Rationality: Thinking Clearly about Truth, Value, and Winning
• The Martial Art of Rationality
• The Methods of Rationality
• The Art and Science of Rationality

Eliezer's two favorites of those six were "The Hard Part is Actually Changing Your Mind" and "The Art and Science of Rationality."

Untangling the Knot: A Users Guide to the Human Mind

Your Brain, an Owner's Manual

Less than One, Greater than Zero: The Sequences, 2006–2009

Approximating Omega (badly, of course)

Sharpening the Mace

Uncountable Infinite Shades of Grey (my apologies)

Stop Tripping Yourself: A Users Guide to the Human Mind

Marshaling the Mind: An Introduction to the Informed Art of Rationality

Motes and Meaning: The Less Wrong Archives

Of Motes and Meaning

Theory, in Practice

Thinking, in Practice

Thinking in Circles:Avoiding the Known Bugs in Human Reasoning.

Feels like lots of the titles people suggest here are for some sort of quirky paperback self-help bestseller. You want to be one of those weighty, widely discussed New York Times bestsellers. These seem to me like the kind of titles you want to emulate:

• Thinking, Fast and Slow
• Brainstorms
• Brainchildren
• How the Mind Works
• The Emperor's New Mind
• Metamagical Themas
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Titles that others have used in the past that I don't recommend:

• How to Write, Think and Speak Correctly :)

There is disagreement about using the word "Sequences". I think it would be nice to remove it from the book's official title, but to keep it with small letters at the bottom of the cover. You know, something mysterious, something for insiders.

Some of the suggested names are great and could be successful (they should be tested on non-LW readers), but sometimes they sound too generic. I mean, anyone could (and some already did) write a book about "Thinking" or "Rationality" or "Mistakes" etc. There is nothing LW-specific about that.

But calling the ebook, for example, "The Craft of Rationality", and having the mysterious "The Sequences, 2006-2009" at the bottom of the page would allow us to refer this book to others as "The Sequences" book, which would make it different from dozens of other rationality-related books.

Modern Rationality: Dissolving Mysteries{, Mysticism,} and Mistakes

Human Rationality: How to Think Clearly and Get What You Want

How to Be Less Wrong

Drop the dates in the title. They just make the book seem old and outdated.

I like something with 'rationality' and 'less wrong' in it. I don't think it's helpful to have 'the sequences' in the title if an aim to to have non less-wrongers pick it up.

What are the odds of a physical book? Would make a great gift, and gifting an ebook still seems weird. I'm still undecided about whether I like my books made out of dead trees or not.

Having only read a few of The Sequences, I may not be the best suited, though I may have the perk of having an immersion level similar to those who also have not read The Sequences, and thus be able to come up with a title that more closely appeals to that mindset. Since you're going to be competing with self help gurus in a genre about better living through better thinking, how about "The Key to Success: It's not just Confidence". I wouldn't discard making reference to some mathematical concept in the title. A contrast like that is aesthetically pleasing in some ways, and in other ways it can be intriguing enough for people to try reading the summaries, like "Bayesian Rationality: Better Living Through Better Thinking". From there, you could make reference to some amazing things like the German Tank Problem, and hammer home the implications that the reader could also do amazing things. Failing that, here's some swings in the dark.

Thinking about Thinking about Thinking

The [Theory and Practice of] Not Making Mistakes

[Instinct]: A Voluntary Action

Mind over Matter, Mind over Mind

Legend: [Word or Phrase] could be {Alternative Word or Phrase, Alternative Word or Phrase, ...}

[Theory and Practice of] could be {Art of, Skillset for, Tools for, Key to, Path of}

[Instinct] could be {Motivation, Gut Feeling,}

The Elements of Rationality.

I would personally prefer The Way, but it's probably too vague.

Magic Bucket Level, There is a Spoon and The Actual Park all sound too much like band names.

How about The First Virtue is Curiosity?

Becoming Less Wrong: Accurate Maps and Winning strategies

or something else that explores the dichotomy between epistemic and instrumental rationality might be a good idea. After all the distinction is quite important (arguably one of the first things that people should learn about rationality as a whole) and largely unnoticed by the general population. In fact if the title is something like Rationality: Accurate Maps and Winning strategies (or equivalent), the first lesson (that rationality is both about having accurate maps and about winning) can be learned from the title (especially perhaps if there is a brief explanation of the title in the preface).

If 'Sequences' is in the title at all it should probably be of the form "Sequences on . . ." rather than just "The Sequences".

Otherwise:

• Bringing Thinking Forward
• Rationality in Prominence
• {Sequences} {On} Resolving Confusion
• {Applied/Practical} Rationality
• Applied Epistemology
• {Actually/Really} Changing Your Mind
• Incremental {Correctness/Reason}
• Relinquishing {Falsehood/Beliefs}
• Celebrating {Reason/Correction}
• Taking No Side {At All}
• On No Side {At All}
• Equable Reason
• Word and Referent
• Living in the Real

I also like (from other posts):

• The Art and Science of Rationality (The Art and Science of Reasoning)
• Making New Mistakes
• The Hard Part is Actually Changing Your Mind
• Less Than One, Greater Than Zero: A Beginner's Guide to Thinking
• Theory, In Practice

And I agree with asking Eliezer to try coming up with something, given that he seems to have a knack for it.

What's the current progress on this?

Predictably Rational: Taking Hold of the Forces that Shape Our Decisions

The Space of Possible Minds

Why not something catchy? The sequences often had extremely catchy titles (eg "An Alien God"). "Becoming Less Wrong" is pretty good, but it doesn't have enough pizzazz. How'sabout something like:

• "If you're reading this, Phase One of my master plan is already complete" (yes, stolen from a T-shirt, but rather appropriate) or
• "The world is mad, you don't have to be"

or some variety of the 'rationality is applied winning' meme:

• "On Winning"
• "Winning - Theory and Practice"

Maybe a take on defeating Azathoth?

• "Kill a God - Become an Agent"
• "Wresting Control of Yourself from Evolution's Grasp"

At any rate, the Memetic Hazard sign should be somewhere on the cover. :)

Any word on a final conclusion?

The Craft of Rationality: The Less Wrong Sequences, 2006–2009

The Art of Rationality: The Less Wrong Sequences, 2006–2009

Why not “The Art and Craft of”? (Too cliché-y?)

(ETA: If I had to pick only one of “craft” or “art” I'd pick the latter -- it helps counteract the Vulcanian connotations of “rationality” IMO.)

The Science and Art of Rationality

The Art and Science of Rationality

Beisutsukai
The Way of Bayes
Getting What You Want
Future Thought
Man's Final Invention
Intelligence: Evolved, Explained, Engineered
Friendly AI: Engineering God
Thinking is a Skill
The Science of Wisdom
The Art of Reason
Metapsyche
The Case for Reason
I Will Teach You to be Smart
Reason for 21st Century Humans
The Dawn Age

If I can just throw another one out there, "Better Living Through Clever Thinking"?

How do you know what you know?

Stop, question, think!

Is there any chance there will be a corresponding print book -- perhaps if the ebook does well? I still greatly prefer reading on dead tree.

Why You Are Wrong and What You Can Do About It.

You Are Wrong and You Can Change That

Who Is Least Wrong?

I think that a big fraction of the audience that the title can change from 'pass' to 'read' will respond with interest to a challenge, so telling them that they are wrong will get them to take second look.

Also, consider using the name of one of the sequences: Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions, The Map and the Territory, and Highly Advanced Epistemology 101 for Beginners are all catchy and intriguing, while indicating or alluding to the subject.

Update: The Science of Reason
[pollid:440]

You Can't Think: Debugging Your Brain
[pollid:441]

Debugging Your Brain
[pollid:448]

Debug Your Brain [pollid:450]

Debug Your Mind [pollid:451]

Brain Dynamics - Fix Your Mind
[pollid:442]

How to Think: A Primer
[pollid:443]

How to Think: A [Beginner's/Novice's] Primer
[pollid:444]

A Thinker's Book on Rationality: How to Be Less Wrong

Let's Talk about Rationality: Topics that Will Make You Less Wrong

Thinking the Right Way: How to Be Less Wrong

Being Rational: How to Think about and Win at Life

Through Rational Lens: Treatise of a Career Rationalist

Calling it the Sequences would only make Less Wrong laughable and support those who argue the people here are out of touch with reality. Do not call it the Sequences.

Hmmm...

Methods of Mastery

Reflections on Reason and Rationality

Less alliteratively...

Getting it Right on the Forty Second Try

Layperson's Epistemological Sciences Survey Which is Reasonably Optimal as a Normative Guide.

In the beginning there was Yudkowsky: The Less Wrong Sequences, 2006-2009.

"Remedial Rationality"

Most of what we learn here is stuff everyone should really know, but somehow they didn't teach us in kindergarten.

Also, framing it as "recovering towards the norm" is less likely to make people defensive.

Rationality: The Sequences, 2006–2009

The Yudkowsky Sequences on Rationality, 2006-2009 (inspired by the Feynman lectures on Physics)

Well, there's a nice site dedicated to Elon Musk, http://shitelonsays.com/

You can start from there. :-)