Rationality is the art of thinking in ways that result in accurate beliefs and good decisions. It is the primary topic of LessWrong.

Rationality is not only about avoiding the vices of self-deception and obfuscation (the failure to communicate clearly), but also about the virtue of curiosity, seeing the world more clearly than before, and achieving things previously unreachable to you. The study of rationality on LessWrong includes a theoretical understanding of ideal cognitive algorithms, as well as building a practice that uses these idealized algorithms to inform heuristics, habits, and techniques, to successfully reason and make decisions in the real world.

Note that content about how the world is can be found under World Modeling, and practical advice about how to change the world is categorized under World Optimization or Practical.

Theory / Concepts

Applied Topics

Failure Modes

Communication

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Reviews 2019