This has led to [[Rationality Sprint]] I got ChatGPT to generate a report: ``` Based on the above output that you generated about learning how to think, David Chapman's post 'A bridge to meta-rationality vs. civilizational collapse', and Robert Kegan, can you write a persuasive piece on why it is so important to learn to think at the age of 28, after receiving a poor education? I'm currently reading the sci fi book "Last and First Men", which charts the rise and fall of many civilisations. It feels like this gradual decline in educational quality has far-reaching consequences and can already be potently felt in 21st century. Brain rot, populism, Vervaeke's "the meaning crisis", nihilism, etc etc ``` And it, based on not that much info about me, pretty much summed up a good chunk of my life in a hilariously devastating way. A big chunk of my time at the EA Coworking Space has been working on [[Personal Dharma Inquiry]] to figure out - what do I actually want to do next?? And "learning how to think", specifically learning rationality (~Kegan 4, according to Chapman) is an essential thing that we just don't do anymore. And I kind of bounced off the rationality community very quickly when I first discovered it, due to distaste for the community and Eliezer's writing style, and moved to post-rationality [[Post-rationalist journey]] without having first integrated rationality. But knowing that a) there's a world beyond rationality & b) that it's still very useful to learn rationality (as is Chapman's claim) makes me feel much happier about learning it. Before I had a grindy feeling of "ugh, but it's a dead end, it doesn't account for everything!", so I threw the baby out with the bath water. Chapman makes the valid point that you can't go from Kegan 3 to 5, or, this is actually how we're educated these days, and it leads to nihilsm/relativism and just disempowers us. And I've felt very disempowered! # Quotes from the Chapman post [A bridge to meta-rationality vs. civilizational collapse](https://metarationality.com/stem-fluidity-bridge) > Kegan describes three stages of adult development (numbered 3, 4, and 5). We could call them pre-rational, rational, and meta-rational. These stages are distinctive, internally consistent, relatively-well-functioning modes for organizing one’s thinking, one’s self, and one’s relationships. They might be described as “islands of psychological stability.” To progress from one island to the next, you must cross a heaving sea of psychological confusion, in which the previous mode no longer seems functional, but you cannot yet operate in the next mode reliably. These stage transitions are emotionally and cognitively difficult, and typically take several years, during which one may think, feel, and act inconsistently. > Ideally, a society and culture provides “bridges” of support from one stage to the next. To some extent, ours does. However, Kegan pointed out that we have allowed the bridge from stage 3 to 4 to fall into disrepair. We are not adequately teaching young adults how to be rational, [systematic](https://meaningness.com/systematic-mode), or modern. This is the central theme of his [In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674445880/?tag=meaningness-20). > This problem seems to have only gotten worse in the two decades since he wrote that. That is what makes me fear civilizational collapse. Keeping modern institutions operating requires cognitively modern, rational operators. We may be destroying the conditions necessary to produce them. I’ll explain this in more detail later. > Up until the 1980s, a university humanities department did teach you how to think—and it was the standard education for the ruling class. Since then, it has taught you _not_ to think. What happens as people trained in postmodern anti-thought move increasingly into positions of power? Without an appreciation for administrative and technical rationality—much less the ability to deploy them personally—how can they lead governments, corporations, universities, churches, or NGOs?