MichaelBishop comments on Beware of Other-Optimizing - Less Wrong

79 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 10 April 2009 01:58AM

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Comment author: MichaelBishop 10 April 2009 03:07:14PM *  3 points [-]

What actions are recommended when you think a friend is making bad choices?

True, our advice is imperfect.
True, our advice is often ignored. True, giving advice may damage our friendship.

But its not acceptable to do nothing.

Comment author: MichaelBishop 10 April 2009 05:20:44PM 2 points [-]

One strategy I use is to simply ask the person about their situation, how they feel about it, and what they are planning on doing about it. If the person is willing to talk, I am able to direct their attention to things I think are important.

But if they don't want to talk, or cling tightly to a belief that I think needs questioning, then I'm not sure what to do. Give up? Confront them with an explicit statement of my beliefs and reasoning?

Comment author: TheOtherDave 27 December 2010 10:11:09PM 0 points [-]

What I usually do in that situation is talk about my own related experience(s) and the conclusions I've come to based on it. (Assuming I have related experience. If I don't, I tend to not trust my own beliefs very much in the first place.)