PlatypusNinja comments on What is Bayesianism? - Less Wrong
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Comments (211)
Given no other information, we don't know which is more likely. We need numbers for "rarely", "most", and "exceedingly few". For example, if 10% of humans currently have a cold, and 1% of humans with a cold have a headache, but 1% of humans have a brain tumor, then the brain tumor is actually more likely.
(The calculation we're performing is: compare ("rarely" times "most") to "exceedingly few" and see which one is larger.)
You're missing the point. This post is suitable for an audience whose eyes would glaze over if you threw in numbers, which is wonderful (I read the "Intuitive Explanation of Bayes' Theorem" and was ranting for days about how there was not one intuitive thing about it! it was all numbers! and graphs!). Adding numbers would make it more strictly accurate but would not improve anyone's understanding. Anyone who would understand better if numbers were provided has their needs adequately served by the "Intuitive" explanation.
Personally it bothers me that the explanation asks a question which is numerically unanswerable, and then asserts that rationalists would answer it in a given way. Simple explanations are good, but not when they contain statements which are factually incorrect.
But, looking at the karma scores it appears that you are correct that this is better for many people. ^_^;