Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

[AvalonXQ]

What if Harry Potter had been raised in a Muggle household to understand the scientific method, skepticism, cognitive biases, logical fallacies, and other critical thinking skills... and then was set loose in Hogwarts and Magical Britain?

The answer is the quite excellent fanfic, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. The only Harry Potter where characters aren't allowed to carry the idiot ball for no reason, where people are expected to stop and think about their actions and consequences, and where "magic" is rigorously subjected to the scientific method.

In addition to being a must-read for any Harry Potter reader who stopped and said, "why didn't they just...", the novel is also a great introduction to the problems with human "common sense" and the advantages of rationality. In addition to being a very good story, it's intended as a teaching tool, offering many of the same lessons on logical fallacies and human shortcomings that are often introduced in skeptical books and blogs.

The writing's not perfect, but I'll admit I find Yudowsky's versions of the characters much more relatable and compelling than Rowling's. In any event, give it a try. And if you do, post what you think.

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

I personally couldn't stand it. I found the characters completely non-relatable and unbelievable. Author tracts are usually a bad idea, and this seems an exceptionally bad case because it contributes to the notion of skeptics or rationalists being unbearably smug. Yudowsky Harry can most often be seen spouting off "scientific" things to sound impressive ("a Bayesian update of an event of infinitesimal probability" comes to mind, or citing the exact page and paragraph for a definition of science by a famous philosopher).

In sum, I am actually interested in many of the things the author tosses out, but I would still rather gouge out my eyes than continue reading.

 

[AvalonXQ]

How far did you get?

 

[marplots]

I got as far as reading the first two posts in this thread before I gave the whole thing a miss.

 

[AvalonXQ]

Yeah, a negative review can certainly have that effect.

 

[Lithrael]

The beginning is pretty rough; everyone's unlikable and it feels like, well, a ff.net fanfic. I was so amused by the scene of McGonagall doing her cat form thing (where did all that mass go?? it's magic. but how can you think with a cat brain? or even a cat-sized brain? it's magic, Potter.) that I kept going.. it really is an epic fanfic once it gets rolling.

I have had a few friends closer to the target age say they didn't like it because it made them feel stupid.

 

[DrDave]

Have sent it to my Kindle, will have a look on the train tonight. I like the warning thing that it takes 5 chapters to get going but if you don't like it by chapter 10 you should give up!

 

[PiedPiper]

Ugh. Terribly painful to read, utterly unconvincing characters, lacks any of the "magic" (pardon the pun) of the original books which made them a joy to read.

Great idea, terrible execution imo. Not sure I could do any better (I'm a reader, not a writer) but any story that makes me laugh at the absurdity of the writing is not one I'm going to enjoy.

I got about three chapters in, by the way.

 

[AvalonXQ]

I got about three chapters in, by the way.

I'd advise you to keep going. It gets a lot better.

If you still hate it by chapter 10, give up.

 

[DrDave]

Chapters 1-4 were appalling, I'm on 6 now and it has definitely improved. But does Harry always talk like that in the entire thing? If so, I may bail out soon.

 

[Rasmus]

The beginning is pretty rough; everyone's unlikable and it feels like, well, a ff.net fanfic. I was so amused by the scene of McGonagall doing her cat form thing (where did all that mass go?? it's magic. but how can you think with a cat brain? or even a cat-sized brain? it's magic, Potter.)

I smell a huge turtle ...

 

[AvalonXQ]

Chapters 1-4 were appalling, I'm on 6 now and it has definitely improved. But does Harry always talk like that in the entire thing? If so, I may bail out soon.

He talks like that a fair bit, yes -- but he gets better as he socializes (and other characters call him on his arrogance).

 

[Humes fork]

You might be interested in our discussion of the author here. See also this and this and this.

Moral of the story: Just because people claim they are rational doesn't mean they are.

 

[AvalonXQ]

You might be interested in our discussion of the author here. See also this and this and this.

Very interesting; thank you.

I don't think any of that has crept into MoR, but it's certainly something to watch out for.