Jess Whittlestone: Rationality and effective altruism

By EA Global @ 2015-08-28T17:21 (+6)

This is a linkpost to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqK_w6DQ6v8

In this EA Global: Melbourne 2015 talk, Jess Whittlestone discusses rationality and why we should care about it. Two major aspects of rationality are covered: "epistemic rationality" (forming accurate beliefs) and "instrumental rationality" (the skill of advancing your goals given your resources). Jess then discusses what rationality isn't, and some common misconceptions. Further, Jess discusses three common components of rationality central to EA: 1) seeking truth (including intellectual honesty and open-mindedness), 2) questioning our intuitions (including thinking fast and slow), and 3) being "effective" (i.e., strategic instead of just responding to environmental pressures).

In the future, we may post a transcript for this talk, but we haven't created one yet. If you'd like to create a transcript for this talk, contact Aaron Gertler — he can help you get started.