Rationality Blind Spot

The failure to recognize when your own commitment to being "rational" has itself become an irrational, identity-driven posture. It's the inability to see that your hyper-rational, emotion-dismissing approach might be blinding you to important factors like empathy, ethics, or social context, and that this inflexibility is itself a form of bias. You're so busy looking for emotional bias in others, you don't see the cold, calculating bias in yourself.

Example: "He proposed solving the budget deficit by auctioning off national parks, citing pure economic rationality. When people called it heartless, he accused them of emotional thinking. His rationality blind spot prevented him from seeing that his model completely ignored the non-monetary value of heritage, ecology, and public well-being—a massive irrational omission."

by AbzuInExile January 31, 2026

Self-Serving Rationality

The performance of being coldly, dispassionately rational in situations where that rationality conveniently aligns with your desires, while abandoning that rigor in situations where it doesn't. You'll do a complex cost-benefit analysis to prove why you should buy the new gadget, but will use a gut feeling to dismiss the same analysis when it suggests you should apologize to a friend you wronged.

Example: "Her self-serving rationality was transparent: she spent three hours comparing CPU benchmarks to justify the expensive laptop she wanted for gaming ('It's the rational choice for long-term value!'). Yet, when her partner suggested comparing grocery prices to save money, it was suddenly 'an exhausting over-optimization of life.' Rationality was her servant, not her master."

by AbzuInExile January 31, 2026

Bending Rationality

The practice of adopting the language and posture of cool reason, but only to justify a conclusion reached through bias, desire, or ideology. It's the construction of a rational-sounding façade for an irrational core. The bender of rationality will use cost-benefit analyses with rigged costs, or Bayesian updates that only accept evidence from one side, creating a simulacrum of reasoned judgment that's emotionally watertight but intellectually hollow.

Example: "She bent rationality to buy the sports car: 'It's a rational investment in my happiness per mile, the depreciation is offset by social capital gains, and the increased risk of tickets is mitigated by my sharper driving focus.' It was a spreadsheet of self-delusion masking a simple 'I want the shiny thing.'" Bending Rationality

by AbzuInExile January 31, 2026

Rationality Forging

Creating a counterfeit version of a rational process—a fake cost-benefit analysis, a rigged Bayesian update, or a distorted decision matrix—where the numbers, probabilities, or utilities are invented or manipulated to justify an irrational desire. It's dressing up a gut feeling or a bias in the ceremonial robes of rational choice theory to make it look dignified and unassailable.

Example: "He forged a rationality to buy the jet ski. His spreadsheet assigned an 85% utility score to 'summer fun,' quantified 'midlife crisis avoidance' as a $5,000 value, and listed the risk of drowning as 'negligible (0.1%).' The output said 'BUY.' It wasn't reasoning; it was a numerically themed birthday wish he'd typed into Excel." Rationality Forging

by AbzuInExile January 31, 2026

Rationality Crafting

The sophisticated design of a framework or worldview that uses the language and tools of rationality (calibration, probabilistic thinking, epistemic humility) not to seek truth, but to protect a core set of beliefs or identities. It's building an elaborate, self-consistent rational fortress where updates are only allowed in certain directions, and all counter-evidence is processed through defensive filters labeled "skepticism."

Example: "He crafted a rationality around his political tribalism. He used Bayesian terms to dismiss opposing studies ('low prior'), framed hypocrisy charges as 'whataboutism' to avoid engagement, and used 'steelmanning' only on his own side's weakest arguments. It was a formidable, internally consistent system crafted for defense, not discovery." Rationality Crafting

by AbzuInExile January 31, 2026

Theory of Constructed Rationality

The insight that what counts as "rational" behavior is defined by cultural and historical context. Maximizing personal profit is "rational" in neoliberal economics. Sacrificing oneself for one's community is "rational" in a honor-based society. Rationality is not a universal calculator in the brain; it's a set of culturally constructed goals and acceptable means that we learn and perform.

Example: "My boss said turning down a promotion to care for my dad was 'irrational.' My family said it was the only honorable choice. The Theory of Constructed Rationality explains the clash: we were using different construction manuals. His manual defined rationality as individual career maximization. Mine defined it as fulfilling familial duty. Neither is 'natural'; both are learned scripts for sensible action."

by Abzu Land January 31, 2026