Jasen comments on Rationalists lose when others choose - Less Wrong

-10 Post author: PhilGoetz 16 June 2009 05:50PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (55)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: Jasen 16 June 2009 07:32:25PM 8 points [-]

There are instances where nature penalizes the rational. For instance, revenge is irrational, but being thought of as someone who would take revenge gives advantages.

I would generally avoid calling a behavior irrational without providing specific context. Revenge is no more irrational than a peacock's tail. They are both costly signals that can result in a significant boost to your reputation in the right social context...if you are good enough to pull them off.

Comment author: randallsquared 16 June 2009 08:23:12PM 2 points [-]

Well, always revenge is more rational than always forgive, anyway. I would expect most people here to know about Axelrod's tit-for-tat, so maybe Phil means something else by revenge than the obvious.

Comment author: steven0461 16 June 2009 08:27:08PM *  2 points [-]

Not all revenge takes place in prisoner dilemmas. I think somebody, preferably somebody more informed than me, should write LW posts on the dynamics of repeated Chicken (there was some literature out there on this last time I looked).