[natpalmer1776]

When I imagine a world with this scenario being the truth, I am less confused than when I imagine a world with the alternatives. I find this to be a fantastic and historically reliable (for me) heuristic.

That being said, I imagine it also factors into internal dialogue that allows those higher up to explain to the boots-on-the-ground researchers that "no you're not working for the military industrial complex, they're just stealing your work that was intended to feed the orphans!"

[simoncion]

While Rationalist techniques can be useful (and their stated objective of "Your brain is bad at thinking carefully. Learn how to make it do better." is a very good one), I'm always cautious when deploying their techniques. The Rats were prone to ascending very, very far up their own assholes... so much so that a huge chunk of the US-based folks got pretty thoroughly captured by lightly disguised 1960's-era Hippie woo and mysticism.

One would think that "Make sure to frequently evaluate whether or not the techniques you're using are actually effective, and adjust your actions if they're not." would be something that member of that group would do automatically as a matter of habit. But, it turns out that many folks shut off their brains when they get to wrap things in jargon as extraneous as it is impenetrable and slap ass-pulled percentages and betting receipts on to the exterior.