Comment by StevenWaterman

Yeah, I think this is exactly it. If something sounds extremely stupid, or if everyone around you says it's extremely stupid, it probably is. If you can't justify it, it's probably because you have failed to find the reason it's stupid, not because it's actually genius.

And the crazy thing is, none of that is fundamentally opposed to rationalism. You can be a rationalist who ascribes value to gut instinct and societal norms. Those are the product of millions of years of pre-training.

I have spent a fair bit of time thinking about the meaning of life. And my conclusions have been pretty crazy. But they sound insane, so until I figure out why they sound insane, I'm not acting on those conclusions. And I'm definitely not surrounding myself with people who take those conclusions seriously.