randallsquared comments on Degrees of Radical Honesty - Less Wrong

30 Post author: MBlume 31 March 2009 08:36PM

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Comment author: randallsquared 01 April 2009 08:15:01PM 7 points [-]

EY was quoted as:

If you'll lie when the fate of the world is at stake, and others can guess that fact about you, then, at the moment when the fate of the world is at stake, that's the moment when your words become the whistling of the wind.

For the vast majority of people, however, the fate of the world will never be at stake in a way that turns on their statements. For those people (and those of us who expect to be them), mentioning that we'd lie to save the world increases others' trust in a way that asserting that we'd never lie no matter what fails to do so.