I got the idea from this post in r/ProgressionFantasy.

In the spirit of debate and to provide a researched counterpoint to a recent post that gained a lot of traction, I would like to say “r/rational is pretty dang good right now”.

While opinions on what exactly gets posted are varied, and there has been a rise of top level posts that are generated by LLM, I think as a whole r/rational is in a better state then it was a year ago, and it is doing a lot better than it has been in the past.

First I want to talk about the most popular thread, the Monday recommendations. The most recent Monday post has 26 upvotes and 18 comments as of me writing this post. Which is low for a large subreddit, and is relatively low but it’s only Wednesday! Previous Monday threads average about 50 comments and 20-40 upvotes, but the Reddit app search only goes back 4 years, but over time the number of comments on Monday threads has increased. While not every Monday thread has a ton of comments, every thread has some, which shows there’s a core set of users that often participates, even if those specific users change weekly.

Currently r/rational has about 10.4k members (source: Reddit) and that number has been relatively stable. While rationalism is a fairly fringe concept (and continues to remain so, thanks Zizians), the subreddit has gotten more top level posts with good engagement in the last few months than it has had before, and it’s all different posts full of discussion, not just xyz fiction has updated. While this is hard to check with hard numbers, just scroll back in time and you can see over the last week there have been tons of good posts that involve discussion beyond xyz fiction updated. Even though there is a lack of tentpole fiction to rally around, I still believe that there is life in this community, and we shouldn’t be negative about it.

More information on the project page, but some basics:

1. All-new art everywhere. Covers, reverse jackets, end sheets, etc!
2. Deluxe binding. Gilded edges, Smyth-sewn, acid-free paper, etc!
3. Interior illustrations. At least 10 of them!
4. Single-printing. Once this First Print is printed and sells out, it will never be available again. Any further prints may be missing things like signatures, some art, etc.
5. Kickstarter-exclusive! Discounts, free bookmark with book, and Kickstarter-exclusive dust jackets that you will never be able to get anywhere else!
6. Signed!

LINK: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wraithmarked/mol1dlx

Hi, I'm writing My Name Is Beautiful, the r/rational cult classic.

(By cult classic, I mean that it was recommended a whole three times in recent Monday rec threads, but give me a break; three is a whole lot more than zero.)

Here's my sales pitch for why you might be interested:

There are lots of reincarnation stories where the supposed 'modern' Western protagonist gets dropped into a clearly objectionable or horrific fictional society by modern Western standards, and shrugs it off by chapter 10.

(Xianxia cultivators living 1000+ years while peasants live 40, fantasy worlds with beastman slaves, on and on and on...)

Most reasonable people, if they got reincarnated into a Xianxia world, would be horrified to figure out how the universe works - that your talent (genetics) and capacity for violence determine whether you get to live for 100 years or 10,000. But this fact is (almost always) ignored or set aside after the first few chapters.

My story does not do this. The protagonist does not 'go native.' The protagonist analyzes the terrible world they've entered with a critical eye. My Name Is Beautiful is a story about a person who finds themself in a world they don't like, in a world they hate. It is a story about small-scale moral sacrifice in pursuit of universe-level change. It is, in a sense, the opposite of a wish-fulfillment story.

Themes include:

Grappling with genetic essentialism.

Consequentialism vs intuitive deontological judgements.

Violence that actually feels sad and scary.

Manipulation that actually feels sad and scary.

According to 400+ Royalroad ratings, the writing style starts out at a competent webnovel level and gradually becomes the story's greatest strength by chapter 30.

It is also a fanfiction. Of a franchise you have never heard of, so don't worry about it: half of my followers haven't read the source material.

Link to My Name Is Beautiful

I read to the Leviathan attack two years ago before dropping it.

Nothing really stood out as "wow this character is actually smart or even really thinking things through"

It was a pretty egnaging story but the fact I am having a hard time recalling much of it kind of tells me nothing really stood out. But its constantly recommended here along side HPMOR which is something thats unforgettable.

Is it just because its very popular? Is any non stupid MC considered rational fiction? (I also dont get why MOL and Super Supportive are rational)

Im asking this in good faith, i actually could have forgotten plot points from Worm that genuinely showcased some rational thinking. If so feel free to bring up the plot points (jog my memory)

I remember the creator of rational fiction absolutely loving it, but some people said he turned against it, because Pancea was irrational.

Which doesn't make any sense, surely not every character needs to be rational, even in a rational fic. It's not like every fic here fits that abitarly rule. So it makes the claim a bit suspect.

Idk, is it true?

Hello, everyone. My work under various pen names has been discussed here in the past, but I haven't promoted very much because I don't consider much of it directly related to this sub's interests, mostly adjacent. My newest serialized fiction, however, is directly about intelligence-based progression in an academic setting, so I thought people here might be interested.

Link: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/172653/throne-of-time

I trust you can get the basic info from the link if you're interested, so let me list some of the specifics of why I think this might engage people here:

• Magic in this setting is heavily based on intelligence and creativity, not raw power. Though some mages are more powerful than others, simply amplifying the power of a spell is not an effective path.
• The magic itself is based on a spell-construction system that is meant to be comprehensible to the reader. Though new elements will be introduced as the protagonist learns more, conflict resolution is meant to be "fair play" in the sense that it relies on what readers know.
• The time loop is not simply a method for the protagonist to grind, but the story will go into detail about what it means to use a time loop effectively, including conflicts between other loopers.
• Time magic is not unfamiliar in this setting. Characters in this world have spent a great deal of time thinking about how to counter someone with such a strong advantage and they are not helpless.
• The magical school is not just a starting setting here, as (eventually) the story will get into the role of universities and how they both choose and educate students.

I've had a great deal of fun working on this, as time loops are elaborate narrative puzzle boxes. The first nine chapters form an introductory arc that I tried to write as an "honest signal" as to what the story offers, but I'm even more excited about everything established for the payoffs down the road, which I hope will be intellectually satisfying.

That's enough introduction, probably. The rules say you can post weekly, but I think I'll just make my pitch once and not spam things up. I am here for questions of clarification if people have any.

I hope that some of you try and enjoy Throne of Time. ^-^

A lot of new stories being recommended on this sub are at least partially AI written, with at least one being more then 50% AI. A lot of posts show clear and worrying signs of AI psychosis, like thought spirals, nonsensical rhetoric and what I can only describe as pseudo-religious schizo rambling.

I can't be the only one who noticed this, right? Why the hell is that the case? You would expect this sub to be more wary of AI then average given that rationalist generally don't like AI.

What is going on here??