“You cannot rely on anyone else to argue you out of your mistakes; you cannot rely on anyone else to save you; you and only you are obligated to find the flaws in your positions; if you put that burden down, don’t expect anyone else to pick it up. And I wonder if that advice will turn out not to help most people, until they’ve personally blown off their own foot, saying to themselves all the while, correctly, “Clearly I’m winning this argument.”” (Eliezer Yudkowsky, Rationality)

Turn to face your beliefs, then throw rocks at them

Turn to face your beliefs, then throw rocks at them

“John Kenneth Galbraith said: “Faced with the choice of changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.”1 And the greater the inconvenience of changing one’s mind, the more effort people will expend on the proof.” (Eliezer Yudkowsky, Rationality)

^5761af

John Kenneth Galbraith, Turn to face your beliefs, then throw rocks at them