what nobody tells you about "trying to do what's rational" is that you end up rationalizing a lot of stuff
Steering by what seems good to me instead of rationality
11 tweets · February 2024 · 71 likes · 2 retweets · read on Twitter
the only stable thing I can steer by is: what I want ...to be clear, it's not the words "what I want". it's a type of question-and-answer. other words: - what seems good/right to me - what makes sense to me - what I am drawn towards & repelled from - my own yesses and nos
if I try to steer by anything other than what seems good to me, I'm making a fundamental confusion in my agent-arena relationship
now, "what seems good to me" can totally include: - helping others - repaying a debt - honoring an inconvenient agreement in other words, it's not inherently selfish or whatever. but it also can't get hacked by "you shouldn't be selfish"
also, discerning "what seems good to me" may involve: - calculating probabilities - following advice I don't totally understand from a credible-to-me source - recognizing the cost/benefit of being able to rationally justify something to a 3rd party reasons may be relevant
the key is that I'm the one choosing which reasons are relevant, based on which ones make sense to me given what I want and I'm the one choosing how to relate to my debts and agreements, and how to have integrity. where I want to be kind
"doing kind things for other people", in the absence of wanting to do it, isn't kindness at all but subjugation! this is obvious; if it seems otherwise you've probably got a bit flipped somewhere (or we're using words differently)
it makes sense that rationalists got big into altruism, because of the way that rationalizing goes along with trying to steer in a way that's out of touch with your own desires
it's not that other people's values don't matter but they matter TO THEM the way they matter TO THEM, which is necessarily different from how they matter to you because you're you and they're them!
you care about everything you care about exactly as much as you do no more, no less sometimes this is inconvenient for some other part of you sometimes this is inconvenient for some other part of society you can deny it if you want, but it'll keep being true
and if you're hearing this and are afraid that if you take in what I'm saying here, then you'll hurt people, then guess what?! you care about not hurting people!