Elliot Temple

Philosopher interested in rationality.

Research

Arguing Without Discussing Opposing Arguments

I read A serious case for dynamic scoring, an essay discussing how the U.S. government inaccurately scores the budget impact of potential laws by ignoring complex, dynamic factors like how a law could increase economic growth. Proposals to bring in more high-skilled immigrants are calculated as costly because the

Research

Substantive Learning Processes

Some changes require a substantive learning process, such as hours of intentional, focused practice. There are other options too, like reading several books over the course of a few months and thinking about it many times during those months. Or you can immerse yourself in a subculture, for months, that&

Research

Science Needs Rational Debate

I wrote Objective Judgment, Chess Competition and How Science Is Failing. Here are some further comments on those issues. Skill at winning chess games is skill at chess. To a good approximation, there's just one thing, not two separate things. By contrast, skill at doing scientific research is

Research

Objective Judgment, Chess Competition and How Science Is Failing

Summary: I discuss how the impact of bias is limited in chess competition. Then I discuss how bias is a bigger factor in philosophy and science. Then I discuss what chess is doing better and propose a solution for philosophy and science. Bias in Chess There is bias in the

Shorts

Mold-Finding Dog Training and Induction

I read an account of training a dog to find hidden mold problems in buildings. (It’s in Mold Controlled by John Banta.) Dogs have a better sense of smell than us, so they can sniff for mold effectively. In short, if you want an exceptionally skilled dog, it takes

Shorts

Losing Track of Discussions

In philosophy discussions, people routinely lose track of the discussion. They forget or become confused about who said what, what replies to each statement were made, what replies to replies were made, what was left unanswered, and what the current evaluation (given the statements so far) of the conclusion is

Shorts

Intentional, Focused Practice

An especially effective method of learning is intentional, focused practice. Intentional means you’re consciously, explicitly trying to learn. You have a goal to learn something. You’re trying to learn on purpose. Focused means you’re trying to learn only a couple things at once. Limiting what you learn

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Investigating Unstable Intuitions

I’ve discussed a technique for investigating your subconscious intuitions. A main way you know about intuitions is they like some things and dislike others (and have no opinion on others). Even if they won’t explain themselves in words, they express opinions – that’s a main way that you

Shorts

Todo Lists and Self-Coercion

A todo list is an organizational tool, not a motivational tool. It’s a memory aid, not a way to persuade yourself about what to do. You should put tasks on your todo list that you want to do. If you include tasks that you don’t want to do,

Shorts

Todo Lists Delegate Work Away From Your Conscious Mind

Critical Fallibilism advocates delegating work from your conscious mind to your subconscious. This takes mental load off your conscious mind, which frees up attention for other things, including creating more advanced knowledge. Your subconscious isn’t the only place you can delegate mental work to. Todo lists also reduce the

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Terminology Clarification Regarding the “Subconscious”

I’m enjoying reading Why I Left Orthodox Medicine: Healing for the 21st Century by Derrick Lonsdale. I noticed that he uses the word “subconscious” differently than I do. I wanted to clarify my terminology in case anyone is confused. In Critical Fallibilism (CF) essays, “subconscious” refers to the part

Shorts

Peer Review Is Worse than the Internet

The internet can be really smart and effective sometimes. We’ve seen examples where impressive things have been figured out by people on internet platforms like Reddit, Facebook, TikTok or 4chan. In the Netflix documentary Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer, a Facebook group helps

Shorts

Peer Review and Appeals to Authority

Suppose you write a blog post arguing a point. Some readers will reply (or, worse, think it without saying it): “If that was true, you would get it published in a peer reviewed journal. If you don’t do that, it’s because you’re wrong.” The assumption here is

Shorts

Peer Review Does Private, Elite Gatekeeping

Peer review prevents some ideas from being published. That’s a significant part of the point. What is published is supposed to already be filtered or gatekept to only be high quality ideas. So the public doesn’t even get to see most ideas. A small group of people have

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Ignoring Criticism and Peer Review

In peer review, part of the idea is you (the article author) don’t get to just arbitrarily ignore the criticisms of the reviewer. You’re supposed to address the issues in some way. But then once you publish, you mostly get to arbitrarily ignore your critics. The peer reviewers

Shorts

Paths Forward Could Replace Some Peer Review

Peer review lacks transparency. Paths Forward commonly involves rational, critical discussions on publicly-readable internet forums. That enables transparency and some other advantages like wider participation. Article authors could be expected to address criticisms. This is like how people have recommended a norm of sharing raw data along with articles. I

Shorts

Advocating Public Peer Review

I criticize peer review for lacking transparency. Then I talked about friendly, private editing, which is fine, and is usually used for papers before the peer review process. Private editing is fine because no one is asked to trust that it ensured high quality. It isn’t an attempt to

Shorts

Private Editing and Peer Review

I criticized peer review for lacking transparency. I suggested the process should take place publicly. (I have no objection to anonymizing the discussion until the review process is complete to help reduce bias during the discussion. I’d suggest de-anonymizing it afterwards though.) Do I ever have someone edit one

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Peer Review Lacks Transparency

Who peer reviewed an academic paper? That’s secret. More importantly, what criticisms did the peers reviewers come up with? That’s secret. What changes were made to the paper due to peer review? That’s secret. When your error correction process is secret, the public can’t see how

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Allocating Intellectual Attention

There are a few standard ways intellectual attention is allocated to ideas. There are social networks. Having allies and fans helps with getting attention. There are gatekeepers and lots of people follow their curated output. There’s popularity or virality. Saying stuff people like and share, or which seems good

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Low Quality Literature Is Hard To Discuss

I recently read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. I liked it. I had been told it’s horrible. The book and its author have been demonized by right-wingers including the Ayn Rand Institute. It’s a really famous and controversial book. It had a significant influence on political policies. A

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Meta Criticism and Unstated Premises

It’s often hard to engage with the literature on a topic because the literature is bad in meta ways. You can criticize the methodology and the glaring omissions, but it’s hard to write about the actual object-level topic. For example, suppose some economics literature didn’t have a

Shorts

Followup for Food Packaging Grammar

Let’s talk more about my post Food Packaging Grammar Error. Summarizing the post, I commented on frozen microwave meal instructions stating “peel film back enough to stir, replace film and cook […]”. I pointed out that it doesn’t say to stir. The steps are to peel, replace and cook.

Applications

Food Packaging Grammar Error

A frozen microwave meal has a grammar error in the instructions. After initial microwaving it says to: peel film back enough to stir, replace film and cook on HIGH for an additional 1-1 ½ minutes Do you see the error? Did you see the error automatically? If it requires conscious analysis

Shorts

Delegating Mental Work

People often try to become really smart by optimizing their conscious thinking. This can only take you so far. Conscious brainpower is a limited resource. To be a really effective thinker, you have to consider how to use things outside of your conscious mind to help you be smarter. What