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Thinking for yourself required knowledge and actual study, not just something people can do on a moment's notice. For example, thinking about the movie 300(200

by kiba 3y ago

Thinking for yourself required knowledge and actual study, not just something people can do on a moment's notice. For example, thinking about the movie 300(2006) required some knowledge of how aristocratic Sparta actually works. It's basically a fascist movie glorifying the brutality of Spartan warriors with no question on its actual efficacy as a fighting force(unremarkable). I recommend this essay on why Sparta sucks.[1] 1. https://aeon.co/essays/who-are-the-leaders-in-our-heads-and-how-did-they-get-there https://aeon.co/essays/who-are-the-leaders-in-our-heads-and-...

avgcorrection 3y ago
Thinking for yourself requires just existing. That goes for anyone who is not being indoctrinated into a cult.
- kiba 3y ago
  Thinking for yourself requires just existing. That goes for anyone who is not being indoctrinated into a cult. The mistake is thinking that you can just "think for yourself" without possessing knowledge. I think people who avoid scams, cults, and pseudoscience largely does it through general knowledge and heuristics, not by thinking hard.
  - avgcorrection 3y ago
    > The mistake is thinking that you can just "think for yourself" without possessing knowledge. This is clearly a mistake since EVERYONE THINKS FOR THEMSELVES WITHOUT BEING SPOON-FED IT. A person needs to be socialized enough to develop language. As long as you’re more human-sociable than a chimpanzee-raised jungle child, that base is covered. You don’t need much more beyond that in order to “think”. > I think people who avoid scams, cults, and pseudoscience largely does it through general knowledge and heuristics, not by thinking hard. Everyone has built-in heuristics. Why do you think “rationalists” complain about “cognitive biases” so much? We need heuristics to survive. Something which we did prior to Prussian-inspired schooling.
drewcoo 3y ago
> Thinking for yourself required knowledge and actual study, not just something people can do on a moment's notice. What do you think happens when people work the land? When people cook, plant, tend animals, build their own tools to make more tools with, do handcrafts? They experiment and learn. They pass along knowledge. I recommend picking up an Eric Sloane book if you're interested in that. He wrote a lot about not the middle ages in Europe, but how people lived in the pre-electrified rural US. https://ericsloane.com https://ericsloane.com

by kiba 3y ago

avgcorrection 3y ago

Thinking for yourself requires just existing. That goes for anyone who is not being indoctrinated into a cult.

kiba 3y ago
Thinking for yourself requires just existing. That goes for anyone who is not being indoctrinated into a cult. The mistake is thinking that you can just "think for yourself" without possessing knowledge. I think people who avoid scams, cults, and pseudoscience largely does it through general knowledge and heuristics, not by thinking hard.
- avgcorrection 3y ago
  > The mistake is thinking that you can just "think for yourself" without possessing knowledge. This is clearly a mistake since EVERYONE THINKS FOR THEMSELVES WITHOUT BEING SPOON-FED IT. A person needs to be socialized enough to develop language. As long as you’re more human-sociable than a chimpanzee-raised jungle child, that base is covered. You don’t need much more beyond that in order to “think”. > I think people who avoid scams, cults, and pseudoscience largely does it through general knowledge and heuristics, not by thinking hard. Everyone has built-in heuristics. Why do you think “rationalists” complain about “cognitive biases” so much? We need heuristics to survive. Something which we did prior to Prussian-inspired schooling.

drewcoo 3y ago

> Thinking for yourself required knowledge and actual study, not just something people can do on a moment's notice. What do you think happens when people work the land? When people cook, plant, tend animals, build their own tools to make more tools with, do handcrafts? They experiment and learn. They pass along knowledge. I recommend picking up an Eric Sloane book if you're interested in that. He wrote a lot about not the middle ages in Europe, but how people lived in the pre-electrified rural US. https://ericsloane.com https://ericsloane.com