Vladimir_Nesov comments on Accuracy Versus Winning - Less Wrong

12 Post author: John_Maxwell_IV 02 April 2009 04:47AM

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Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 03 April 2009 06:14:19PM 2 points [-]

The post is about a tradeoff between epistemic rationality and instrumental rationality: you shouldn't invest too much effort in precise knowledge, and in some circumstances, humans may find themselves at a disadvantage because of knowing more. The same clash appears in the metaphor where you trade the achievement of goals (not wanting to eat kittens) for precision of knowledge (gaining IQ points).

Comment author: thomblake 03 April 2009 06:55:34PM 4 points [-]

Ah... I think I see now. The comment assumed that one would not want to eat kittens, and that IQ is equivalent or isomorphic to epistemic rationality, and then mapped that to giving up instrumental rationality in favor of epistemic rationality. Definitely could've used some explanation.