While the author has a great underlying point, I find this style of writing a particular disservice: "Perhaps 5% of the population has enough abstract reasoning

While the author has a great underlying point, I find this style of writing a particular disservice: "Perhaps 5% of the population has enough abstract reasoning skill to verbally understand that the above heuristics would be useful once these heuristics are pointed out." This is a version of "you, enlightened reader, are the special chosen few" - to me it reads no different in rationalist essays as when it gets pitched to me by multi-level marketers selling their get rich quick schemes. If you're familiar with reading bullshit such an appeal to the reader's vanity should immediately send up a few red flags, and it can completely detract from what would otherwise be a reasonable piece.