Search

Ideas that are…

Search Ideas


2274 ideas match your query.:

Fallibilism is the view that there is no criterion to say with certainty what’s true and what’s false. As a result, we inevitably make mistakes and all of our knowledge is tentative in nature. Nothing is obvious but depends on what one understands about reality. It also means that no knowledge is beyond revision, even if it claims to be. Knowledge grows by addressing problems in our knowledge. We solve problems by guessing solutions and testing them. This also means we should always be careful not to destroy or even slow down the things and ideas that correct errors and thereby create knowledge.

This view is mainly influenced by Popper, and errors are my own.

#3139·Zelalem MekonnenOP revised 9 days ago·Original #2371·Criticized2

Fallibilism is the view that there is no criterion to say with certainty what’s true and what’s false. As a result, we inevitably make mistakes and all of our knowledge is tentative in nature. Nothing is obvious but depends on what one understands about reality. It also means that no knowledge is beyond revision, even if it claims to be. Knowledge grows by addressing problems in our knowledge. We solve problems by guessing solutions and testing them. This also means we should always be careful not to destroy or even slow down the things and ideas that correct errors and thereby create knowledge. Some of those ideas are freedom, privacy, and free markets. We are also never the passive recipients of our knowledge; we are the creators.

This view is mainly influenced by Popper, and errors are my own.

#3138·Zelalem MekonnenOP revised 9 days ago·Original #2371·Criticized3

This is done as of 9b5788c but it’s still free for now. Will make it a paid feature after some more testing and polishing.

#3135·Dennis HackethalOP, 10 days ago

What do you think of: it’s the law of the excluded middle that constrains the universe to exist. Nothing can’t exist, so the only alternative that’s left is for something to exist.

#3133·Dennis HackethalOP revised 10 days ago·Original #521

What do you think of: it’s the law of the excluded middle that constrains the universe to exist. Nothing can’t exist, so the only alternative that’s left is for something to exist.

#3132·Dennis HackethalOP revised 10 days ago·Original #521·Criticized2

Integrity: The refusal to permit a breach between one's best ideas and one's actions.

Phrasing it in terms of ‘best’ ideas could be tricky. Recall that we don’t (currently) know how to classify ideas as better/best/worse/worst.

I suggest speaking of one’s convictions instead.

#3131·Dennis Hackethal, 10 days ago·Criticism

Rationality: The commitment to the ongoing deliberate use of conjecture and criticism.

This is vague and compatible with irrational uses of conjecture and criticism. People can use them to come up with evasions and lies.

Would it make sense to refer to #2281 instead?

#3130·Dennis Hackethal, 10 days ago·Criticism

Moral Ambitiousness

The only quote I could (quickly) find is lowercase: https://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/pride.html#order_2:~:text=by%20the%20term%3A%20%22-,moral%20ambitiousness,-.%22%20It%20means%20that

I recommend getting in the habit of copy/pasting from original sources, and linking them.

#3129·Dennis Hackethal, 10 days ago·Criticism

Is there overlap between conscientiousness and thoroughness? Is being thorough part of being conscientious?

#3128·Dennis Hackethal, 11 days ago·CriticismCriticized1

It occurs to me that self-discipline can literally be interpreted to mean disciplining the self in the way a parent might discipline a child. That framing makes it easier to see problems with self-discipline.

#3127·Benjamin DaviesOP, 11 days ago

Applied Virtues

  • Curiosity: The drive to find new problems and generate conjectures.

  • Self-Criticism: The primary tool of intellectual honesty.

  • Clarity: The virtue of refining thoughts to be less ambiguous and easier to criticise.

  • Epistemic Humility: The consistent recognition of one's own fallibility.

  • Thoroughness: The commitment to accounting for all known uncontroverted ideas and pending criticisms that may pertain to the problem at hand. {This seems weak}

  • Good Faith: The commitment to "steel-manning" ideas and criticisms.

  • Resilience / Fortitude: The ability to recover from failure and re-apply the process.

  • Decisiveness: The will to act once a conjecture is provisionally accepted and criticism is exhausted.

  • Courage: The will to face the potential pains of the epistemic process (facing uncomfortable truths, acting on counter-intuitive conclusions, thinking alone).

  • Accountability: A social manifestation of integrity; the willingness to "own" the consequences of one's actions.

  • Reliability: The practice of meeting one's voluntary commitments.

  • Proportionality: The skill of acting proportionately to a given situation, criticism or event.

  • Intellectual Impartiality: The skill of separating the content of an idea from its source, allowing criticism to be applied fairly.

  • Fairness: The consistent application of the same critical standards to all ideas.

  • Intellectual Patience: The willingness to give a problem the time it needs, rather than using a problematic solution (a solution with pending criticisms). {Okay but what if it is an emergency?}

  • Foresight & Planning: The application of conjecture and criticism to problems pertaining to future circumstances.

  • Diligence / Industriousness: The sustained application of effort to the problem-solving process, usually to a particular problem.

  • Creativity / Ingenuity: The skill of generating novel conjectures and criticisms.

  • Efficiency: The drive to reduce the work, resources or steps it takes to solve problems.

  • Resourcefulness: The skill of solving problems within constraints.

  • Purposefulness: The skill of defining a hierarchy of problems to solve, ensuring one's productive effort is directed at goals worth pursuing.

  • Focus: The ability to sustain mental effort.

  • Sharpness: Raw mental processing power.

  • Energy / Vitality: The capacity to be highly productive, especially over long durations.

  • Athleticism / Physicality: The capacity of the body to execute actions.

  • Memory: The ability to store and retrieve important conjectures and criticisms.

  • Conscientiousness: The opposite of negligence. A commitment to making genuine efforts; not cutting corners.

  • Excellence: The opposite of mediocrity. Man can go “as high as his ability will carry him” (The Virtue of Selfishness, ch. 12).

#3125·Benjamin DaviesOP revised 11 days ago·Original #3090

Good question. It is not something I have thought about much myself, but I wanted to allow for the possibility that people may want to discuss keeping their digital devices tidy, not just physical spaces.

I suppose digital tidiness would consist of organising your computer, phone, or tablet in such a way that it is straightforward to find things when you need them.

#3123·Benjamin DaviesOP revised 11 days ago·Original #3122

Good question. It is not something I have thought about much myself, but I wanted to allow for the possibility that people may want to discuss keeping their digital devices tidy, not just physical spaces.

I suppose digital tidiness would consist of organising your computer, phone, or tablet in such a way that it is straightforward to find things when you need them, and it isn't overwhelming at any point.

#3122·Benjamin DaviesOP, 11 days ago·Criticized1

The Effective Altruism forum has an interesting way to react to posts.

There’s an ‘Agree’ button and a ‘Disagree’ button. Those are apparently anonymous. Then separately, there’s a button to ‘Add a reaction’ of either ‘Heart’, ‘Helpful’, ‘Insightful’, ‘Changed my mind’, or ‘Made me laugh’. And those are apparently not anonymous.

I wonder why they chose to make some reactions anonymous but not others. I don’t think I’d want a ‘Heart’ or ‘Made me laugh’ button, they seem too social-network-y. Also, ‘Heart’ seems like a duplicate of ‘Agree’. But ‘Insightful’ and ‘Changed my mind’ seem epistemologically relevant. Maybe ‘Helpful’, too.

If I did decide to go with ‘Agree’ and ‘Disagree’ buttons, I wouldn’t make them anonymous, though.

#3121·Dennis HackethalOP, 12 days ago

What does digital tidiness mean to you?

#3120·Dennis Hackethal, 13 days ago

The activity feed already shows updates to discussions. Could just include changes to the privacy setting there. And, whenever the privacy setting does change, notify participants of the change.

#3118·Dennis HackethalOP revised 13 days ago·Original #3109·Criticism

On second thought, the reason for the privacy change may well be related to the reason for any changes to the title or about section, so doing it in the same notification might actually be clearer for users.

#3117·Dennis HackethalOP, 13 days ago·Criticism

The activity feed already shows updates to discussions. Could just include changes to the privacy setting there. And, whenever the privacy setting does change, separately notify participants of the change.

#3115·Dennis HackethalOP revised 13 days ago·Original #3109·CriticismCriticized2

The activity feed already shows updates to discussions. Could just include changes to the privacy setting there. And, whenever the privacy setting does change, separately notify participants of the change.

#3113·Dennis HackethalOP revised 13 days ago·Original #3109·CriticismCriticized2

A change to the privacy setting is notable enough that it requires a dedicated notification independent of any changes to a discussion title or about section.

#3112·Dennis HackethalOP, 13 days ago·Criticism

The activity feed already shows updates to discussions. Could just include changes to the privacy setting there. And, whenever the privacy setting does change, notify participants of the activity.

#3110·Dennis HackethalOP revised 13 days ago·Original #3109·CriticismCriticized2

The activity feed already shows updates to discussions. Could just include changes to the privacy setting there. And, whenever the privacy setting does change, notify participants.

#3109·Dennis HackethalOP, 13 days ago·CriticismCriticized1

How would you notify participants of changes to the privacy setting?

#3108·Dennis HackethalOP, 13 days ago·CriticismCriticized1

Preview links of discussions should show the name of the discussion being linked.

See eg https://x.com/agentofapollo/status/1991252721618547023

h/t @benjamin-davies

#3107·Dennis HackethalOP, 13 days ago·Criticism

Good call. I made the pagination ‘sticky’ as of 1e7a85d. Archiving this but let me know if something isn’t working right.

#3106·Dennis HackethalOP, 13 days ago·Criticism