The Ten Commandments of Rationality

Here, let me take a stab:

1) Don't confuse beliefs and values.

2) Be agenty.

3) Never leave information on the table.

4) Strive for consistent beliefs.

5) There is actually a Christian formulation of this one: "thou shalt not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit" (Acquinas interpretation). Judaism and Catholicism (perhaps Sufism also, but I am not very familiar with the Sufi tradition so will not comment) have many elements of "proto-rationality", for a number of reasons, one of them being that at one point studying religion was "academia" -- where smart people went.

6) Use CDT :).

7) Having accurate beliefs and completed goals takes work. Remember to work for what you want.

8) Argue collaboratively.

9) Never be certain of anything.

10) Remember to integrate your utility with respect to time.

You know, the difference between people like Dennett or Dawkings and the LW crowd, is that while all are atheists, Dennett and Dawkings genuinely do not miss God or religion. I get the feeling you guys do, with your commandments, and virtues, and solstices, and wedding ceremonies.

I disagree with 4). I think our cognitive architecture is not consistent, and I think wishing it were so is not really very productive. "Man, to thyself be true."

This niche has already been filled by the Twelve Virtues.

Ilya's right, it's too long. For example, in Exodus it is written, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." The author doesn't bother defining adultery because his audience shares enough history and culture to know pretty what what's meant. I suspect that you're trying to defend yourself against corner cases and nitpicking. That's a reasonable thing to want (especially in this crowd!) but that's what commentaries are for.

Come to think of it, that division between commandment and commentary might be useful to you. For example, I would rewrite your ninth commandment as, "Thou shalt not assign probability of 0 or 1", and appeal to Rebe Yudkowsky's writings for questions like "but what about epsilon?"

Too long.

Thou shalt never engage in solipsism or defeatism, nor wallow in ennui or existential angst, or in any other way declare that thy efforts are pointless and that exerting thyself is entirely without merit. For just as it is true that matters may never get to the point where they cannot possibly get any worse, so is it true that no situation is impossible to improve upon. Verily, the most blessed of silver linings is the fact that the inherent incertitude of one’s own beliefs also implies that there is never cause for complete hopelessness and despair.

Absolute-certainty/universal applicability red flag raised.

Silver-lining claim red flag raised.

And by far, most importantly: map-territory conflation red flag raised.

Some possible situations truly can't be improved upon. The fact that you must always be uncertain about whether you are really in one is no help. Just a guarantee that in such a situation a rationalist will always have a little bit of false hope.

Upvoted anyway, most of these are good.

Disregarding the style of writing, I would just like to say that I think most people on this website could generally do very well with taking commandment number 8 seriously. Meditating on it every night before going to bed might help, or maybe tattooing it on their foreheads so they see it in the mirror when they wake up... 6 foot flaming letters in the sky spelling it out, maybe.

In all seriousness, I cannot count the number of times I get the urge to bash some heads together and yell "Stop being clever! You're here to learn things, not win arguments or score points!"

If anyone has a good idea for how to get this message across in a way that doesn't seem overly combattative, let me know.

1) Thou shalt never conflate the truth or falsehood of a proposition with any other characteristic, be it the consequences of the proposition if it be true, or the consequences of believing it for thyself personally, or the pleasing or unpleasant aesthetics of the belief itself. Furthermore, thou shalt never let thy feelings regarding the matter overrule what thy critical faculties tells thee, or in any other way act as if reality might adjust itself in accordance with thine own wishes.

The map is not the territory. Rationality is about making effective decisions.

If you as an American ask me whether I come from Berlin, I'm going to say "Yes." I have been born in Berlin. If someone from Berlin asks me I could say: "No. I have been born in Spandau." Spandau is a district of Berlin and there a complex history. Both answer are true because it depends on the context in which the question is asked.

When doing biological modeling there often a tradeoff between complexity of the model and accuracy. Which model you want to use depends on the purpose. If you want to model a whole brain you are going to use a less complex model of a neuron than when you want to model 100 neurons and how those neurons interact with each other.

Beauty is a guiding principle in theoretical physics.

Feeling are a valuable source of information. Shutting down any source of information is no good idea.

6) Thou shalt never judge a real or proposed action by any metric other than this: The expected consequences of the action, both direct and indirect, be they subtle or blatant, taking into account all relevant information available at the time of deciding and no more or less than this.

Basically you are saying that Eliezer is wrong with Timeless decision theory.

I wonder whether you have an understanding of what "solipsism" means that is different from mine. How can a rationalist commandment include a proscription against considering a particular hypothesis?

A list of exact things at the core of rationality is well-traveled ground; however, if you focus exactly on "things to take away from Less Wrong" I'd write a different list.

I hate flowery langauge and "commandment" style writing, so these are more along the lines of ten Oblique Strategies than ten commandments.

1. Worrying about technology that doesn't exist is a gamble; sometimes it is correct but often times, it can be of no consequence to you.
2. It's very easy to claim to be rational; it's much harder to win. Avoid calling yourself a rationalist. Save your breath to win.
3. To have a thing to protect is rare indeed. (Aside: If your thing-to-protect is the same as a notable celebrity, or as the person you learned the concept from, it is not your thing-to-protect.)
4. The way to get better at doing things normal people are good at is not by doing things other than the way normal people would do them.
5. It's always easier to attack than to defend.
6. The sharpest eyes have the darkest blind spots.
7. The quickest minds get stuck the fastest.
8. Whenever it is possible for a human to take a path of great effort, or a path of least effort, they will take the path of least effort, and pretend it was the path of great effort.
9. Whenever it is possible for a human to lie to themselves, they will.
10. Scavenge. Strip the value from all things you encounter. If the strategy of your enemy will make you win, use it. If the weapon of your enemy makes you win, use it. The scavenger

I would say more than anything else these are the things I've taken from Less Wrong, not from the Sequences, nor from the impulse-towards-rationality within all interactions, but from the veneer of community stretched on top of those things.