If you still get thrill out of slot machines, it just means that you don't get it at a deeper level.
I don't think that follows. Do you have a general theory of the causes of thrills in human brains?
Unless one of your terminal goals is to watch your money supply fluctuate in a downward sloping direction, this thrill isn't helping you.
If the algorithm that determines when to be 'thrilled' was any good then "playing slot machines" would not trigger it. The thrill is due to a cheap heuristic going wrong.
I mean this in the same way that I mean it when I say "If getting a big piece of meat makes you happier than a $10k check, then your happiness system doesn't get it"
I know many people that can do the basic math, but still get enjoymen...
(Since there didn't seem to be one for this month, and I just ran across a nice quote.)
A monthly thread for posting any interesting rationality-related quotes you've seen recently on the Internet, or had stored in your quotesfile for ages.