From the Bookshelf of LessWrong…

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

Eliezer Yudkowsky

Finish date: March 14, 2015

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Dec 20, 2015 David Arnold rated it it was amazing

Much as I hate to praise anything about the founder of the LessWrong pop culture movement, this astonishingly large fanfic hooks directly into the interfaces originally installed by JK Rowling, and tugs the dear reader on a tour of cognitive biases and general thinking malfunctions.

I learned a good deal of information on human behavior from this 122-chapter monstrosity. It made me laugh out loud almost every chapter. It made me cry a couple of times.

I recommend it to everyone. But it is a chal ...more

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Feb 02, 2015 Richard Kemp rated it it was amazing

Shelves: rational, fiction, fanfic, webfic

Since I read this for the fifth time several years ago, I had come to forget why it is my favourite work of art in any genre or medium. I knew still that it was great, and that it was formational for me, but I had forgotten the intensity of emotion that it stirs in me.

Carruth's "Primer" awes me with the complexity of it's self-referential loopy plot constructs.
Jonze's "Her" awes me with it's ability to tell a fundamentally human story about empathy using such unfamiliar and inhuman elements.
Kauf ...more

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Jul 10, 2014 Adam Zerner rated it it was amazing

Some parts are really good. I really like the long conversations Harry has, particularly the ones with Professor Quirrell and the ones with Dumbledore. I think these conversations are really what make this book unique and great. They're entertaining, but they're also insightful. You'll be learning many lessons from them throughout the book (which is actually the motivation behind writing the book).

And there are some good action scenes as well. The author does an impressive job of keeping the ten ...more

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