JGWeissman comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread - Less Wrong

34 Post author: Unnamed 27 May 2010 12:10AM

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Comment author: JGWeissman 03 July 2010 09:07:35PM 9 points [-]

Seriously? Did you miss the part about "I think that the second degree of caution will suffice."?

When Harry did the experiment under the supervision of an experienced, adult wizard, he had all sorts of safety precautions in place, that he did not have when he tried it on his own.

Hermione was right, Harry could have gotten them killed by trying novel tricks without any sort of precautions. And having seen the standard precautions, Harry understood this, which is why:

"Um, Hermione?" Harry said in a very small voice. "I think I owe you a really, really, really big apology."

Comment author: lmnop 04 July 2010 12:08:48AM *  3 points [-]

My problem wasn't that Hermione advocated more caution, but that she seemed to be doing so only because they were going "against the rules" (without really understanding why the rule existed). But I reread the scene with her confrontation of Harry just now and I think I didn't give her enough credit/ was confusing her with the canon version. Go Hermione ;)