Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Playing the Meta-game - Less Wrong

24 Post author: Technologos 25 December 2009 10:06AM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 25 December 2009 05:50:07PM 11 points [-]

You're in luck! The problem with your post is very easy to fix.

He was right. I was playing by the rules, when I should have been setting them.

That's where your post ended, and a fine post it was. Delete all the stuff after that. If only all writers had problems so simple!

Comment author: Technologos 25 December 2009 07:23:46PM 1 point [-]

Done. Thanks for the input--apparently I haven't yet internalized de Saint Exupery's admonition.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 25 December 2009 07:42:24PM 2 points [-]

Now that only the story remains, you should also rename the post (gun/knife no longer make sense, if they ever did).

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 25 December 2009 07:50:32PM 2 points [-]

Renaming posts resends them in the RSS feed, please don't. Post title still makes sense to me.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 25 December 2009 09:09:03PM 1 point [-]

Never noticed that before... Should be considered a bug.

Comment author: Technologos 25 December 2009 07:50:48PM 0 points [-]

A good point. Fixed.

Comment author: MatthewB 27 December 2009 09:33:24AM 0 points [-]

Call me dense if you will, but what does taming a fox have to do with editing a post?

Unless there was another admonition of Saint Exupery that I am not familiar with.

Comment author: Technologos 27 December 2009 07:45:08PM 1 point [-]

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

Comment author: MatthewB 28 December 2009 09:46:06AM 0 points [-]

Yes... Of course (Doh! on my part)... This is Art School 101 stuff... I went to Art School (once upon a time), so why did I forget this application in relation to this post?

The Article does read much better at the current stopping point.

Comment author: tut 27 December 2009 09:45:05AM 0 points [-]

I thought that his admontion was about not caring about justice (as just desserts), only about getting people to act right in the future.

Comment author: MatthewB 27 December 2009 09:49:51AM 0 points [-]

Hmm... I am thinking of the conversation between the Little Prince and the Fox, where the Fox says that one must take responsibility for what one tames.

I think it has been so long since I read any of St Exupery's work to really recall what the admonition was. It was 30 years ago, I believe. I also recall in Night Flight that one of the Characters was admonished for the death of a pilot, and although the person had little to do with the death. The admonishing character later explains that what he did had little to do with right/wrong, but about making sure that pilots did not die.

Is that the admonishment to which you are referring?

Comment author: tut 27 December 2009 10:00:44AM 0 points [-]

I also recall in Night Flight that one of the Characters was admonished for the death of a pilot, and although the person had little to do with the death. The admonishing character later explains that what he did had little to do with right/wrong, but about making sure that pilots did not die.

Yes, that is what I was thinking of. I hadn't read about the Little Prince and the Fox.