realitygrill comments on Rationality Lessons in the Game of Go - Less Wrong

40 Post author: GreenRoot 21 August 2010 02:33PM

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Comment author: realitygrill 25 August 2010 03:09:34AM 0 points [-]

This vaguely reminds me of Paul Graham's exhortation to students, "Stay upwind." [link needed and will update later if I remember to]

Comment author: arundelo 20 February 2011 03:28:38AM 2 points [-]

"What You'll Wish You'd Known" (advice to high schoolers):

Suppose you're a college freshman deciding whether to major in math or economics. Well, math will give you more options: you can go into almost any field from math. If you major in math it will be easy to get into grad school in economics, but if you major in economics it will be hard to get into grad school in math.

Flying a glider is a good metaphor here. Because a glider doesn't have an engine, you can't fly into the wind without losing a lot of altitude. If you let yourself get far downwind of good places to land, your options narrow uncomfortably. As a rule you want to stay upwind. So I propose that as a replacement for "don't give up on your dreams." Stay upwind.