Comment by neurotron on The Most Important Thing You Learned · 2009-02-28T00:29:22.996Z · LW · GW

The posts are amazing, well connected and very detailed. I think one of the best insights you had was to make concise these biases as the words of your Confessor:

"[human] rationalists learn to discuss an issue as thoroughly as possible before suggesting any solutions. For humans, solutions are sticky...We would not be able to search freely through the solution space, but would be helplessly attracted toward the 'current best' point, once we named it. Also, any endorsement whatever of a solution that has negative moral features, will cause a human to feel shame - and 'best candidate' would feel like an endorsement. To avoid feeling that shame, humans must avoid saying which of two bad alternatives is better than the other."

Any understanding of what it means to be rational must come to terms with the treacherous nature of the mind; the myriad number of traps that hold us back and the lack of any one true principle.

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2009/02/super-happy-people.html