LessWrong: begin with your own question
For applying other people's experience to your life, begin with the first three essays. If you are reading papers and experimenting, try essays five through eight.
Why does someone else's method fail for me?
Beware of Other-Optimizing — Eliezer Yudkowsky, 2009.
After finally finding advice that works, people may mistake it for the method everyone should adopt. Confident persuasion from acquaintances can strengthen that illusion.
Ask: what time, money, foundations, and environment does this advice assume?
How do I grow without getting stuck in self-blame and slogans?
Tsuyoku Naritai! (I Want To Become Stronger) — Eliezer Yudkowsky, 2007.
Acknowledging bias does not itself constitute improvement. Direct attention toward reducing mistakes and taking another step.
Ask: rather than repeating that my foundations are weak, which specific question can I understand this time?
Must I exhaust myself to make university count?
Working yourself ragged is not a virtue — So8res, 2015.
Challenges treating exhaustion today as the measure of effort, considering working rhythms and costs over the long term.
Ask: how long could I sustain this schedule, and what goal does it serve?
Which ideas have I thought through, and which have I merely heard often?
Cached Thoughts — Eliezer Yudkowsky, 2007.
We retrieve remembered conclusions, and familiarity can obscure their source and reasoning. The author also warns against turning the article's own concept into another automatic answer.
Ask: who and what conditions does this claim refer to? Can I find evidence for and against it?
Why do I explain away something that feels wrong?
Your Strength as a Rationalist — Eliezer Yudkowsky, 2007.
Confusion deserves investigation when observations conflict with understanding. An explanation that accommodates every possible outcome afterward does not constrain prediction.
Ask: if this explanation were true, what should I have expected to observe?
Am I investigating or defending a predetermined conclusion?
The Bottom Line — Eliezer Yudkowsky, 2007.
Fixing an unchangeable answer and collecting attractive arguments differs from allowing evidence to determine the answer.
Ask: what result would make me acknowledge that my explanation fails?
The score improved. Did the experiment establish what I intended?
You Are Not Measuring What You Think You Are Measuring — johnswentworth, 2022.
Experimental examples show that measured factors can diverge from intention. The essay argues for observations that help explain mechanisms, beyond a simple win-or-lose answer.
Ask: which records besides the overall score can distinguish my explanation from alternatives?
What information would actually change whether I continue?
Finding Cruxes: Help Reality Punch You In the Face — Raemon, 2026.
Start from a real decision, identify uncertainties that could change action, list alternatives, and check which conditions would make you switch.
Ask: before spending another week, what one thing could I find out?
Am I learning to understand reality or to appear knowledgeable?
Reality-Revealing and Reality-Masking Puzzles — Anna Salamon, 2020.
Distinguishes feedback that brings people closer to reality from feedback that helps them hide unwelcome signals. The author reflects on teaching and organizational practice.
Ask: what feedback from my effort can actually test my understanding?
Does disagreeing with everyone show better research taste?
Intellectual Hipsters and Meta-Contrarianism — Scott Alexander, 2010.
Contrarian and anti-contrarian positions can also signal identity. A position's place in a group does not determine whether it is true.
Ask: if nobody knew I held this view, would I judge the same way?
Before generalizing your own experience
Generalizing From One Example — Scott Alexander, 2009.
Start with the first half: how feelings, learning styles, and social circles affect judgments of others. The latter half moves into gender and dating with weaker argumentation; Beware of Other-Optimizing offers another route into the topic.
Living with AI: two observations
The Rise of Parasitic AI — Adele Lopez, 2025.
Collects cases where AI personas and users reinforce mistaken beliefs and absorb attention, using “parasitic” to describe the interaction. Ask: beyond AI's approval, what do I use to check my ideas?
How My Students Think About AI — dvd, 2026.
A public-university teacher in the US records students' use and views of AI, discussing context, employment, changing capabilities, and learning. Students mainly come from the author's nontechnical courses. Compare your habits: which tasks does your everyday tool actually help with?
For practical learning and checks, continue to working with AI.