What the poop does rational mean anyway?

[Heretic_Cata]

Wait, are you saying that being too rational can be bad?

If by bad you mean either boring and/or annoying to others then yes.

 

[warpus]

If by bad you mean either boring and/or annoying to others then yes.

How can being too rational be annoying to others?

"Okay guys, camping was $150 for the 2 days, there's 3 of us, but Steve was only here for 1 of the days, so we each owe $60, except for Steve who owes $30"

"QUIT BEING SO RATIONAL, IT'S ANNOYING"

 

[Heretic_Cata]

How can being too rational be annoying to others?

"Okay guys, camping was $150 for the 2 days, there's 3 of us, but Steve was only here for 1 of the days, so we each owe $60, except for Steve who owes $30"

"QUIT BEING SO RATIONAL, IT'S ANNOYING"

That's not being TOO rational.

"guy1:Okay guys we need to get from here to there. We'll take this road.

guy2:But that road over there has pretty trees,ancient ruins and is that a crashed UFO near that road?

guy1:GTFO WE ARE TAKING MY ROAD BECAUSE WE'LL SAVE 2 MINUTES TRAVEL TIME AND 0.015 LITERS OF GAS"

And see CivG's example.

 

[warpus]

That's not being TOO rational.

"guy1:Okay guys we need to get from here to there. We'll take this road.

guy2:But that road over there has pretty trees,ancient ruins and is that a crashed UFO near that road?

guy1:GTFO WE ARE TAKING MY ROAD BECAUSE WE'LL SAVE 2 MINUTES TRAVEL TIME AND 0.015 LITERS OF GAS"

And see CivG's example.

That's not being "too rational", that's just being a screaming jackass.

 

[mrt144]

Rational = Sociopathy Justified

 

[Dachs]

That's not being "too rational", that's just being a screaming jackass.

What do you mean? He was rationing the gas and his time...

 

[Zack]

Rational

–adjective
1. agreeable to reason; reasonable; sensible: a rational plan for economic development.
2. having or exercising reason, sound judgment, or good sense: a calm and rational negotiator.
3. being in or characterized by full possession of one's reason; sane; lucid: The patient appeared perfectly rational.
4. endowed with the faculty of reason: rational beings.
5. of, pertaining to, or constituting reasoning powers: the rational faculty.
6. proceeding or derived from reason or based on reasoning: a rational explanation.
7. Mathematics.
a. capable of being expressed exactly by a ratio of two integers.
b. (of a function) capable of being expressed exactly by a ratio of two polynomials.
8. Classical Prosody. capable of measurement in terms of the metrical unit or mora.
–noun
9. Mathematics. rational number.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

That's not being TOO rational.

"guy1:Okay guys we need to get from here to there. We'll take this road.

guy2:But that road over there has pretty trees,ancient ruins and is that a crashed UFO near that road?

guy1:GTFO WE ARE TAKING MY ROAD BECAUSE WE'LL SAVE 2 MINUTES TRAVEL TIME AND 0.015 LITERS OF GAS"

And see CivG's example.

Why not assign a value to the enjoyment derived from the sights along the road? And the crashed UFO has got to be worth more than 0.015 L of gas and definitely worth the two-minute detour.

 

[Traitorfish]

Rational = Sociopathy Justified

That's "rational self-interest", as they like to call it. It is quite possible to be both rational and empathetic; indeed, it's rather fundamental to any effective communication.

That's not being TOO rational.

"guy1:Okay guys we need to get from here to there. We'll take this road.

guy2:But that road over there has pretty trees,ancient ruins and is that a crashed UFO near that road?

guy1:GTFO WE ARE TAKING MY ROAD BECAUSE WE'LL SAVE 2 MINUTES TRAVEL TIME AND 0.015 LITERS OF GAS"

And see CivG's example.

Simply performing a mathematical excercise which ignores anything but the most basics variables does not constitute "rationality", it merely reflects a painfully simplistic mindset.
This disagreement, you see, stems from the fact that you seem to interpretate "rationality" as refering exclusively to a robotic, unemotional sort of logic, which is really rather questionable.
Also, yeah, your strawman is just plain pyschobonkers.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Tonight must be Gibran's birthday or something...

(Edited for Perfection.)

AND the lady priestess spoke again and said: Speak to us of Reason and Passion.
And he answered, saying: Your mind soul is often times a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite.
Would that I could be the peacemaker in your mind soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.
But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring mind soul.
If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your mind soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;

And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.
Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows---then let your heart say in silence, "The world God rests in reason."
And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky--then let your heart say in awe, "The world God moves in passion."
And since you are a person among the multitude breath in God's sphere, and a leaf in God's forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.

"Rationality" is an organizing principle that we use shape our view of the world. It gives particular weight to one approach when we assess what we see, think, expereince etc. over other approaches. While it may have a commonly accepted definition, each of us bends that definition to suit our personal beliefs.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Jeez guys i made up my example as an exageration of being rational. Of course that doesn't happen in real life. The point of my example was that people who are too rational don't spend money for fun, for going on gut feelings.

Also for some reason no one said anything about my second example.

 

[MobBoss]

"Having to do with bad military food".

Aha! The MRE - Meal Ready to Eat....

OR

as we used to call them: Meals Refused by Ethiopians.

 

[Ayatollah So]

if you're interested in cognitive biases, you would probably enjoy Overcoming Bias and Less Wrong. /plug

Bookmarked!

This should get you started

The wiki mentions, near the end, an alleged division between theoretical and practical rationality. Theoretical rationality is said to be concerned with logical consistency and empirical support for claims.

I propose we drop the "theoretical" qualifier, and take this as the definition of "rationality". Practical rationality is whatever follows for action and planning; i.e. whatever follows from the norms of logical consistency and empirical adequacy. In my view, the Homo economicus model of decision-making does NOT follow.

Does that answer the intended question in the OP?

 

[Dachs]

Simply performing a mathematical excercise which ignores anything but the most basics variables does not constitute "rationality", it merely reflects a painfully simplistic mindset.
This disagreement, you see, stems from the fact that you seem to interpretate "rationality" as refering exclusively to a robotic, unemotional sort of logic, which is really rather questionable.
Also, yeah, your strawman is just plain pyschobonkers.

You seem to have the rather odd impression that I'm actually, you know, arguing on one side or the other, instead of cracking bad jokes, which is what's really going on.

 

[Traitorfish]

You seem to have the rather odd impression that I'm actually, you know, arguing on one side or the other, instead of cracking bad jokes, which is what's really going on.

Ok, my bad. I was actually aiming that at Heretic Cat, but, in my seemingly infinite stupidity, quoted your reply. (Made doubly stupid by the fact that, even if it hadn't been a joke, it was hardly the one to argue.)

I'll fix that, then, I suppose. Perhaps less confusing that way, and at least makes me less apparently stupid.

Incidentally, while engaged in a pointless TVTropes wander, I sumbled across an entry on "Straw Vulcans", which more or less makes the point that I attempted to make, only well.

 

[Cutlass]

Aha! The MRE - Meal Ready to Eat....

OR

as we used to call them: Meals Refused by Ethiopians.

I've known people that preferred them to ordinary meals.