SFist - Debug My Brain

It's time for a bunch of self-proclaimed "rationalists" — a group of mostly technologists in their 20s — to start acting like it and stop paying the Berkeley-based [Center For Applied Rationality](http://rationality.org/). I say this because CFAR's $3,900 4-day seminars and their attendees are [the subject of a New York Times magazine article](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/magazine/the-happiness-code.html?_r=1) this week that will leave you slapping your forehead in front of an imagined group of conference-goers.

Lest you think this to be a kooky-Berkeley one-off spiritual center, allow me to note that these charlatan-sounding types have been hired by Facebook and the Thiel Fellowship and that $3,900 is not cheap, especially given the living conditions offered.

> \[The\] workshops... are run like a college-dorm cram session. Participants stay on-site for the entire time (typically four days and nights), often in bargain-basement conditions. In San Leandro, the organizers packed 48 people (36 participants, plus six staff members and six volunteers) into a single house, using twin mattresses scattered on the floor as extra beds. In the kitchen, I asked Matt O’Brien, a 30-year-old product manager who develops brain-training software for Lumosity, whether he minded the close quarters. He looked briefly puzzled, then explained that he already lives with 20 housemates in a shared house in San Francisco. Looking around the chaotic kitchen, he shrugged and said, ‘‘It’s not really all that different.’’

Yes, in a total coincidence, that would be Lumosity the games app that must now fork over [$2 million to the FTC for "unfounded" claims of cognitive health benefits](https://sfist.com/2016/01/06/brain_drain_game_app_lumosity_will.php). Others at the seminar included Asher, a self-described "singing, freestyle rapping, former international Quidditch All-American turned software engineer.’’ A third was a gentleman who ended conversations with a bit of charm, saying ‘‘I will allow you to disengage,’’

The fun starts with a CoZE, or comfort-zone expansion, exercise. An organizer and CFAR founder who says ‘We’re trying to invent parkour for the mind," as if to shout "THIS IS A FAD," first encourages attendees to, indeed, step outside their comfort zones. Naturally, one puts his hand in a pan of curry and another takes off his shirt and affixes a sign to himself that reads "touch me." We're off!

> ‘‘A lot of people think that rationality means acting like Spock and ignoring things like intuition and emotion,’’ \[co-founder Julia Galef\] said ‘‘But we’ve found that that approach doesn’t actually work.’’ Instead, she said, the aim was to bring the emotional, instinctive parts of the brain (dubbed ‘‘System One’’ by Kahneman) into harmony with the more intellectual, goal-setting parts of the brain (‘‘System Two’’).

An elaboration on that:

> ‘‘The prefrontal cortex is like a monkey riding an elephant,’’ she told the group. ‘‘System One is the elephant. And y

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