Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
by Eliezer Yudkowsky · first published 2015
56% recommend32% neutral12% critical
Why HN recommends it
Rationalist Harry Potter fanfiction that teaches scientific thinking and bias-awareness through an inventive, clever story. Suits readers who want an entertaining, idea-rich introduction to Yudkowsky's rationality ideas.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In this alternative version of J.K. Rowling's famous tale, Petunia Evans marries the biochemist Michael Verres. The couple adopts her orphaned nephew. Christened "Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres," he is raised in an environment of science, knowledge, and rationality. Upon discovering the wizarding world, he prepares to turn it upside down with his keen intellect.
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…Future (Ashlee Vance) 8: Superintelligence (Nick Bostrom) 9: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (Douglas Hofstadter) 10: How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie) 11: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (Eliezer Yudkowsky) 12: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner) 13: What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical…
on “Ask HN: I have no commitments for the next 6 months – what books should I read?” ↗It isn't a proper book, but Eliezer Yudkowsky's Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality was incredible. Don't judge it by the fact that it is a fanfic.
on “Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011” ↗Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky and the related sequences.
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?” ↗Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Written by an AI researcher, the book explores HP as if he was a very rational and intelligent agent, rather than someone who immediately accepts all aspects of magic. It’s not just interesting, but…
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?” ↗Fantastic book. Either that, or Eliezer Yudkowsky's fanfiction "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" was the best fiction I read this year. http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_M... HP&TMOR didn't sound like the kind of thing I'd have liked... massively mistaken. Very good. Highly…
on “Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why” ↗the GP is Eliezer Yudkowsky http://yudkowsky.net/, he works at a nonprofit. Also author of the excellent "Harry Potter and the methods of rationality". So your remark makes no sense. Also those Salary figures are low. The lowest I've seen for a junior engineer who can't negotiate in NYC or SF is 70-90k. Its very very normal for a smart junior engineer…
on “How Much Money Do You Make Programming?” ↗"Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" by Eliezer Yudkowsky - the most brilliant book I've read this year. I wish I'd read it 10 years ago. And Atlas Shrugged - controversial, I know, a lot of people here hate it for some reason, but it…
on “What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?” ↗…"The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, because they showed me how human systems break, and they provided human models for how to see and live in, through, and past those broken systems. "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" by Eliezer Yudkowsky, because it set the bar (high) for all future fiction, especially when it comes to the insightful portrayal of the struggle between good and evil.
on “Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?” ↗Rationality is good, but I found Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality to be a much more pleasant read about the same topics by the same author. Both books suffer from the same problem, the lack of an editor. They could be half the size and it would make them a much more…
on “Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?” ↗If you like Harry Potter, and you're a regular reader of HN, I highly recommend Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (HPMOR). I'm not a "fan fiction" person, but after seeing it recommended so many times, I gave it a try. It is very good.
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗…biases into account. Familiarise yourself with them. Read books like "Predictably Irrational". Follow Eliezer Yudkowsky most excellent articles on http://www.overcomingbias.com/ (and read his awesome "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_M... ). Be aware of those biases. Your subconscious has biases too. Don't take its answers for granted - test them out. Practice figuring…
on “Reevaluating how we reason” ↗That was fabulous as far as fanfic goes. I'd call it almost on par with the "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" fanfic by Eliezer Yudkowsky.
on “'Virtual Lolita' Aims to Trap Chatroom Paedophiles” ↗"Harry Potter and The Methods Of Rationality" by Eliezer Yudkowsky. I am really liking the recasting, so far.
on “Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?” ↗…normal page font size, caused him to rethink a whole chapter (he couldn't use descenders, which limits the first word, which limits his first sentence, which constrains his first paragraph and so on). Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by Eliezer Yudkowsky. Every single chapter is potentially mind blowing. The whole approach of trying to instruct rationality through such fiction is itself brilliant I think.
on “Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?” ↗…Alexander (also The Timeless Way of Building) Lila by Pirsig (If you've read ZMM and left Lila unread you've left a lot on the table) The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutch Antifragile by Taleb Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Yudkowski. Particularly Chapter 39. The two Political Order and Political Decay books by Fukuyama Life's Ratchet - Hoffman
on “Ask HN: What books fundamentally changed the way you think about the world?” ↗