BenAlbahari comments on Great Product. Lousy Marketing. - Less Wrong

16 Post author: BenAlbahari 28 February 2010 09:33AM

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Comment author: Bongo 28 February 2010 01:35:57PM *  9 points [-]

About the use of dark arts, and the magic paragraph... Maybe there's an important difference between:

  • turning someone into an extreme rationalist who would see they had been "hacked" and be grateful for it.
  • giving someone correct opinions but otherwise have them remain irrational and ignorant of having been "hacked".
Comment author: BenAlbahari 28 February 2010 03:29:10PM *  0 points [-]

I think that's a useful distinction.

It's debatable whether extreme rationalism is healthy for everyone (if even feasible). See Is self-deception a fault?. If not, and we respect someone's well-being, then it may not be possible to persuade them with rationalist tactics alone. Yet we know their cognitive biases. And, to sound very Machiavellian, if we don't exploit these biases, someone else will.