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PhilGoetz comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 5 - Less Wrong
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I'm enjoying the story; but am bothered by this passage:
Bella's life isn't just less valuable than Harry's. Her life has a large negative value. Harry should be trying to prevent her escape. This righteous, humble talk about why Harry can't save himself instead of her is exactly the sort of thing that makes me so exasperated with comic-book superheroes; and just the sort of thing I was hoping the Methods of Rationality would expose, or at least avoid.
It does work out better than if Harry had tried to save himself - but, it's a story. This story is remarkable partly because it uses a rational protagonist; but it could also be remarkable for making more concessions to reality than most stories. This is a case where it failed to make a concession.
On a related note,
It seems the author is flat-out telling us that Harry is deliberately acting irrational, and commends him for it. Curious.
The math does add up, though: Quirrell is at least four times more important than all of Azkaban put together. It's like how, in my mind, at least 10% of the loss caused by the 16-40k guillotine deaths in the French Revolution is from the early death of Lavoisier.
It's pretty clear from the times it's come up that Harry's utilitarianism is either mistaken or too unnatural to actually guide his behavior- and so this just seems like more evidence of that.
Are you sure? In this fic, Slytherin isn't always bad.
Perhaps the story will have a "Harry's fall from rationality" arc?