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ABranco comments on Some Thoughts Are Too Dangerous For Brains to Think - Less Wrong
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This is an example of a pretty different kind of thing to what WrongBot is talking about. It's a hack for rationing attention or a technique for avoiding distraction and keeping focus for a period of time. You read the email once your current time-critical priority was dealt with, you didn't permanently delete it. Such tactics can be useful and I use them myself. It is quite different from permanently avoiding some information for fear of permanent corruption of your brain.
I'm a little surprised that you would have thought that this example fell into the same class of things as WrongBot or I were talking about. Perhaps we need to define what kinds of 'dangerous thought' we are talking about a little more clearly. I'm rather bemused that people are conflating this kind of avoidance of viscerally unpleasant experiences with 'dangerous thoughts' as well. It seems others are interpreting the scope of the article massively more broadly than I am.
Or putting it differently:
One thing is to operationally avoid gaining certain data at a certain moment in order to better function overall. Because we need to keep our attention focused.
Another thing is to strategically avoid gaining certain kinds of information that could possibly lead us astray.
I'd guess most people here agree with this kind of "self-deception" that the former entails. And it seems that the post is arguing pro this kind of "self-deception" in the latter case as well, although there isn't as much consensus — some people seem to welcome any kind of truth whatsoever, at any time.
However... It seems to me now that, frankly, both cases are incredibly similar! So I may be conflating them, too.
The major difference seems to be the scale adopted: checking your email is an information hazard at that moment, and you want to postpone it for a couple of hours. Knowing about certain truths is an information hazard at this moment, and you want to postpone it for a couple of... decades. If ever. When your brain is stronger enough to handle it smoothly.
It all boils down to knowing we are not robots, that our brains are a kludge, and that certain stimuli (however real or true) are undesired.