Twelve Virtues of Rationality

Something that happened at Penguicon that I hadn't mentioned before was my coming on a small paper pamphlet titled "Twelve Virtues of Rationality". I skimmed over it briefly, then tossed it into my bag for further reading in its entirety later. Then, as I often do, I entirely forgot about it until emptying out my bag later on that week.

I've actually read it now, though, and it's a very nice little treatise on twelve main points of rational thought, written by Eliezer S. Yudkowsky, and posted on his website (linked above, if you didn't already figure that out). I'd recommend reading over it to anyone, and while it's not earth-shattering (any reasonably rational mind should be saying to themselves "well yeah, that makes sense" while reading it), it's a nice and concise bit of writing on the topic. Sometimes even for material you know, a well-organized and succinct outline of main points makes it easier to fully digest and remember in day to day life.

Also, if you're not a fairly rational person at least... please stop being a burden to the rest of society, and read it twice.

He's kind enough to release it under a creative commons license (attribution, no derivatives), although the fact that he uses a traditional copyright symbol on the same page in reference to the same work is ambiguous. In any case, I thought I'd take advantage of his generosity and post it here as well, hoping to have a few more people read it. Enjoy, and spread it yourself as well.

Thank you, to whomever printed it and left it on tables at Penguicon, you at least got it to one interested party, and I'm sure others.