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Galef: CFAR rejects workshop applicants who want to fix others' irrationality

Julia Galef · #8 Julia Galef: The Art of Changing Minds · Feb 20, 2016 · at 25:37

Julia Galef, co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR), discusses the organization's admissions criteria for workshops on rational decision-making.

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“And so one of the questions we ask them in the admissions interview is why are you interested in coming? What are you hoping to get out of it? And sometimes, occasionally, we get someone who says, well, I want to, like, learn how to explain rationality to the people around me so that they realize how irrational they are. And those people we gently turn away, saying we don't think it's a good fit for them. Because it, the motivation really has to be, I want to improve my own reasoning and notice my own blind spots.”

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