benelliott comments on Rationality Quotes: March 2011 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Alexandros 02 March 2011 11:14AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (383)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: TobyBartels 03 March 2011 02:54:27AM *  14 points [-]

Stupid is as stupid does.

This is an old saying, which I learnt from the 1994 movie Forrest Gump (not otherwise a bastion of rationalism).

While we may judge people as irrational ("stupid") based on what they know (epistemic rationality, roughly), it's instrumental rationality that matters in the end.

Comment author: BillyOblivion 05 March 2011 11:59:29AM 11 points [-]

If it's stupid, but it works, it ain't stupid.

Comment author: benelliott 05 March 2011 12:08:00PM 5 points [-]

Or alternatively, there's something intelligent that works much better.