timtyler comments on The Importance of Self-Doubt - Less Wrong

23 Post author: multifoliaterose 19 August 2010 10:47PM

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Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 20 August 2010 09:40:33PM *  1 point [-]

Perhaps compare a doomsday cult with a drug addict:
The outside view (e.g. of family and practitioners) looks one way - while the inside view often looks pretty different.

That's not what "inside view" means. The way you seem to intend it, it admittedly is a useless tool, but having it as an option in the false dichotomy together with reference class tennis is transparently disingenuous (or stupid).

Comment author: timtyler 20 August 2010 09:57:24PM *  0 points [-]

You seem to be thinking about reference class forecasting. In that particular case, I just meant looking from the outside - but the basic idea is much the same. Doomsday organisations have a pattern. The SIAI isn't an ordinary one - but it shares many of the same basic traits with them.