In general, it's a bad idea to form opinions of people from a news story about them -- sometimes accurate news doesn't make for a good story. The CFAR folks are

In general, it's a bad idea to form opinions of people from a news story about them -- sometimes accurate news doesn't make for a good story. The CFAR folks are... what's the opposite of cocksure? Epistemically cautious? Here's an illustrative example. The New York Times article says this: "[...] Afterward, participants are required to fill out an elaborate self-report, in which they’re asked to assess their own personality traits and behaviors. (A friend or family member is given a similar questionnaire to confirm the accuracy of the applicant’s self-assessment.)" What the article doesn't mention is that the reason they're giving such a questionnaire to a friend or family-member is to cut down on self-report bias in their one-year longitudinal study of whether or not they're getting real results [1]. People can trick themselves into thinking that their lives have changed for the better after spending time and money on it, and the ask-a-friend thing is an attempt by the CFAR people to avoid getting a rosy-tinted picture of their own efforts. They could get away with being a lot less honest. [1] http://lesswrong.com/lw/n2g/results_of_a_oneyear_longitudinal_study_of_cfar/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/n2g/results_of_a_oneyear_longitudina...