What are your best short witticisms, suitable for use on a t-shirt, bumper sticker, or similar location? Ideally something that might make someone reading it think, or get curious enough to ask about it. Simple in-group identification is fine too, though.
For context, therufs is spending today at the NC Maker Faire making t-shirts, and asked me for suggestions this morning. As I was still mostly asleep, I wasn't very helpful.
I did exactly that after looking at this thread, and only spotted your comment when I wanted to post the results.
I skipped some obvious refinements as this was a 5 minute project.
The ones I find most T-shirtable are “Most haystacks do not even have a needle”, “Things are only impossible until they're not”, “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off”, “Reality is not optional”, and “The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it.”
(Note how the first two send apparently contradictory messages. The next twos seem to be variations on the Litany of Gendlin; they remind of something I've read somewhere, “Deal with reality or reality will deal with you.”)
If we're looking for a short, pithy statement which signals affiliation with the Less Wrong meme cluster, I think the standing all-time top rationality quote is a good place to start.
Personally, I've been hearing all my life about the Serious Philosophical Issues posed by life extension, and my attitude has always been that I'm willing to grapple with those issues for as many centuries as it takes.
-- Patrick Nielsen Hayden
I don't think wearing slogans on shirts is much of a way to promote anything. It's a signal of affiliation. Shirt slogans don't change people's minds, but they can help like-minded people recognize each other and view each other favorably.
Plus, as time goes on, the reference class of things which are promoted on shirts gets closer and closer to being all-inclusive.
I didn't really have "promoting rationality" in mind; when I'm shirtmaking and not pressed for time, I aim most for "wearable and accurate self-expression", followed by "maybe eliciting a flash of recognition from a very tiny percentage of people who see the shirt".
For my own purposes, the ideal respondant to this prompt would have to be able to read my mind and see what I overlook, but any luminous aspiring rationalist might also be able to provide insight.
You've seen/heard about the What Would Jesus Do thing, yes? This is that but with references to the Harry Potter as a Rationalist fanfic Yudkowsky is doing.
What Would Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres Do
What Would Professor Quirrel Do
Professor Quirrel Would Avada Kevadra (the Killing Curse, very efficient for removal of obstacles :P)
"Keep calm and apply Bayes' Rule" below a Tudor crown logo.
I'm wondering if pictures vs text-only makes a difference in how effectively a t-shirt will prompt questions or conversations.
Also, whether the class of which the above is an instance - hitching a ride on an already well-known meme - wins over originality.
Wish someone would run a proper experiment :)
Wearing clothes with slogans written on them is a bad idea socially. It is quite unlikely that anyone will ask you about it, and even less likely that such an interaction will result in any good. All the negative social effects are likely to overshadow the few positive encounters you may have. Even if you wear the clothes with the slogan in the appropriate social context, like a Less Wrong meetup, they don't add any value.
If you wanted to talk to someone about rationality, what do you think would help more in impressing them: a rationalist wearing normal, stylish clothes, or a rationalist wearing a t shirt with a slogan printed on it?
It is difficult to explain why clothes (or vehicles) with slogans printed on them are bad for you. If it helps, consider that the vast majority of people you see outside are not wearing clothes with witticisms, they have all decided that it is not beneficial. The exceptions are mainly religious, political, and other extremists.
I think this depends very much on your social circle and social goals. Wearing clothing with slogans on it is a high variance strategy: high attractiveness to a few people, low or even negative attractiveness to others. Wearing slogan-less clothing is more low variance; probably no one will object, but likely none of your responses will be as positive as the maximum positive response from wearing a T-shirt with a slogan on it. Both strategies can be useful, depending on what you are trying to accomplish.
Personally, I wear shirts with nerdy slogans on them, and anecdotally have had several positive interactions with people who came up to me to say "I like your shirt." (And I doubt I've lost much by turning people off.)
Also, I'm unconvinced that, in a casual context, wearing a shirt with a slogan on it is as negative as you suggest. I see people wearing shirts with slogans I don't get all the time, and I think I just ignore them, or occasionally ask what they mean (which rarely gets me very far conversation-wise, but doesn't cause me to dislike the person).
On the other hand, if you're trying to project an aura of Serious Grownup, it's probably a bad idea.
EDIT: Unless you're talking about shirts with controversial slogans, I suppose. That's even more high-variance, but again, in some contexts could still be a good idea. (I was thinking of things like "Engineering: It's like math, but louder.")
Shirts I've gotten comments on that I took as positive:
But I'm also quite certain that context matters. Family, polite old ladies, nerds (of varying extremes), and Chinese people tend to be the majority of people I interacted with once I got to eighth grade and my anti-idiot filters successfully limited my interactions with anyone else. (Nowadays it's just family, but I've gone into that elsewhere.) I'm sure an "Of course I care! That's why I'm calculating probabilities!" would get (mostly neutral or positive) reactions, but how that translates into real world applications I can only imagine (I physically cannot read body language and a non-negligible number of people might be artificially polite to me because of my eyes).
It is difficult to explain why clothes (or vehicles) with slogans printed on them are bad for you.
On many occasions "difficult to explain" turns out to be a hint for "not actually true".
the vast majority of people you see outside are not wearing clothes with witticisms
Indeed. The vast majority are wearing clothes bearing advertisement for various brands. I would think twice before concluding that they have decided that is beneficial.
If you wanted to talk to someone about rationality, what do you think would help more in impressing them: a rationalist wearing normal, stylish clothes, or a rationalist wearing a t shirt with a slogan printed on it?
In impressing them? Probably the former, unless the slogan happens to strike them as clever.
In bringing me to their attention and encouraging them to approach me in a crowd full of people wearing normal stylish clothes and T-shirts with non/anti-rationalist slogans? Undoubtedly the latter.
In encouraging them to approach me in a crowd full of people wearing T-shirts with rationalist slogans? It's very hard to say, I don't expect either to have much effect there..
What do you expect in those scenarios?
Impressing, persuading - the difference between these is mostly insignificant when dealing with non-rationalists. I chose the word due to my belief that rational argument is an inefficient method for spreading rationality. If you encounter a non-rationalist, you may rationally explain him why rationality is great, but if you leave a good impression on an emotional level, he'll probably remember the lesson about rationality much longer. Ideally we probably want to do both. Arguing people into changing their way of thinking is vastly more difficult than creating in them a desire to change. This tends to be supported by studies in psychology - people are much more likely to do things and be happy about it when their own brain gets to explain why they are doing it.
A practical example of this would be a popular movie star speaking about rationality on Oprah. Regardless of what the star said, interest in rationality would almost certainly increase, and so would the average level of rationality, even if slightly. (If the star spoke well, the effect would be larger, of course.) I'm quite certain that this would have a much larger effect on spreading rationality than having someone in a t-shirt make an argument about rationality in front of the same amount of viewers.
How many Less Wrong users have become more rational, not because of any rational arguments they read, but because they were impressed by Yudkowsky or someone else? I'll be the first to admit that being impressed by the people here was a significant factor in getting me to study rationality in more depth.
Getting people to change their ways of thinking is extremely difficult. I say that wearing a dorky T-shirt while attempting this will only make the task more difficult.
Fortunately, I keep a quotefile for just such an occasion. Here are some of the pithier entries:
Peace if possible, truth at all costs. -- Martin Luther
Trust, but verify -- Russian saying
Live forever or die trying
I intend to live forever. So far, so good. -- Rick Potvin
Give me immortality or death. -- Nick de Jongh
"I'm not a psychopath, I'm just very creative"
TANSTAAFL -- Heinlein
What you don't know will kill you. -- The Cynic's Book of Wisdom
Half of knowledge is knowing the questions. -- The Cynic's Book of Wisdom
Look behind the curtain. -- The Cynic's Book of Wisdom
Plus a couple of my personal favorites:
Why should I believe that?
Then again, I could be wrong.
All syllogisms have three parts, therefore this is not a syllogism
American Non-Sequitur Society--We don't make sense, but we do like pizza
Any slogan simple enough to fit on a bumper sticker is too simple to do any good
Ask me about my vow of silence
Circular Definition: see Circular Definition
Circular logic is self-validating. Therefore, it is correct.
Does this program halt?
I shouldn't make sweeping generalizations, but we all do it.....
I think my brain has a mind of its own
If I'd known grandchildren would be so much fun, I would have had them first
If if' statements had nothen' clauses,
If there were no rhetorical questions, what would we do with our hypothetical answers?
If words could speak, I wonder what they'd say
If you don't go to other people's funerals, they won't go to yours
I've got nothing to say--don't make me say it twice
The map is not the territory, but you can't fold up the territory and put it in your glove compartment
Objectivity is in the eye of the beholder
Practice atheism, the religion of the gods!
The Theorem Theorem: If if, then then
What color is a chameleon on a mirror? The same color as the chameleon on the other side of the mirror
What do you look like when you aren't visualizing anything?
What do you mean, YOU'RE a solipsist?
Which came first, the future or the past?
Why did Douglas Hofstadter cross the road? To make this riddle possible
Yes, but what if this weren't a rhetorical question?
What part of gestalt didn't you understand?
The Two Rules 1) Don't tell people everything you know
I went on a nostalgia trip. It wasn't as good as it will be.
Universal Solvent Corporation, Container Research Division
The invisible and the non-existent often look very much alike
because circular reasoning works [wrapped around into a circle]
NO MEMES! Pass it on
Circular reasoning fails because [wraps around in a circle]
Omt ndlss vwls
Circular reasoning working because circular reasoning fails because.... [wrapped around in an infinity sign]
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
I will not violate causality yesterday
Contrary to Occam's Razor, patients can have as many diseases as they damn well please.
I'm so Meta, Even This Acronym
If you use a slippery slope argument once, you'll use it for everything
Who are you to question why your god doesn't want me to believe in him?
And here's one that people are likely to ask about: The voices in my head are SATB.