Instrumental Rationality Questions Thread

How is it better than r/LifeProTips and similar subreddits?

You could try something like http://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Finger-Gloves-Versatile-Coverage/dp/B0002NYPGU as well. (May be too warm for regular use, though.)

Does it help if you just cut and file your nails really short?

Have you tried using nail polish instead of hot sauce?

You're doing humanity, women, and your own immortal soul... ehh, moral character a disfavour by listening to that drivel. If you want to get laid, do what everybody else is doing – look good, have lots of friends of both genders, and go to parties where people get very drunk. Tried and trusted. Responsible for 100% of my sexual activity. Buy one today and get one free.

There's lots of less misogynist dating advice I would try first, e.g. Mark Manson's stuff or Good Looking Loser. Why learn to hate women if you don't need to? And it's not even clear to me that the misogynist advice works better. I'd guess that Heartiste stands out more for his ability to stir up controversy and attract attention than give good advice. Even if your goal is developing unshakable self-confidence, I doubt reading him is the best way and I think it's plausibly counterproductive. (Offhand maybe try doing toastmasters, lifting weights, learning martial arts, meditating, getting therapy, making more male friends, drinking beer, other stuff?)

Also just an FYI, although there are definitely women for whom acting hypermasculine is the best approach, I've noticed that geeky women seem to be at the opposite end of this personality dimension. So if your goal is a long term relationship with a fellow geek, I think you're better off honing a different set of skills. (Guesses: good looks, interestingness, geek status markers, ability to help women who are socially anxious feel calm & safe around you.)

Disclaimer: I'm happily committedly monogamous.

I'd have to say his advice is great for playing the poisoned game of mostly promiscuous pseudo-relationships as the mainstream low culture of certain countries sells them to people.

Now, the reason I say "poisoned game" is that, having played that game and developed a reputation for playing that game, I expect you to be miserable. The whole routine sounds inviting when you're basically an utter newb (fabled to be a creature called a "virgin") and don't know just how fucked-up and unhappy relationships can get yet. When you've seen a few relationships crash-and-burn because they didn't really respect each-other and each-other's agency, while you've seen relationships thrive when they do respect each-other, you start generalizing and noticing how the initial stages of the "dating process", as culturally pitched to people, seem carefully optimized to make most relationships get off on the wrong foot.

Note that the original writer who made the website popular may have stopped posting many years ago. For the core information, stick to the posts from 2007-2009. Everything else is potentially (and in most cases) a massive step down.

As for whether reading 2007-2009 era Heartiste would lead to instrumentally rational behavior, it would depend very much on your particular cognitive architecture, position in life, and so on. If you're a young, heterosexual male who values an extremely high level of intellectual and physical freedom, and you tend to have overly altruistic tendencies which harm you in the long term (thereby also decreasing your ability to help other people in the long term), then you may benefit very significantly from the content.

Keep in mind that he's more of an artist and wordsmith than an epistemic-mode thinker. Rather than pinpointing specific theories and arguments he makes, and then asking whether they're accurate descriptions of reality; instead read an expansive selection of his writing and notice the effects on your feelings, intuitions, etc.

Like all instrumental rationality, it depends on how it aligns with your terminal goals, and how you feel about conscious action which affects others' unconscious reactions. I'd recommend Cialdini or Carnegie as required reading alongside PUA thinking, so you can understand what parts are general human reactions and what parts are specific to sexualized interactions with a certain type of woman.

I do think that it's likely a true belief that most humans act and react in fairly hardwired ways, and understanding those reactions is beneficial for a whole lot of terminal desires. I don't think that Heartiste (or others in the PUA clique) are focusing on the right things for long-term happiness and shared self-reflective growth with a partner.

It reads like a spin-off series from The Dog Whisperer. With further reading, the advice on how to treat people like Pavlovian subjects only gets more disgusting.

This is a very mixed bag of advice. As someone who actually understands the nature of this advice; the ability to pick out the right advice from the pile of shrivelling poop, is a skill I would credit very few people to have.

THERE IS GOOD ADVICE THERE. But good luck working out which sentence it is in.