patrissimo comments on Silver Chairs, Paternalism, and Akrasia - Less Wrong

36 Post author: dclayh 09 April 2009 09:24PM

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

Comments (39)

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

Comment author: patrissimo 29 May 2009 12:11:15AM 0 points [-]

Yeah, me too. There is a consistent asymmetry between the two sides of the Chair for me. The long-term goal is usually what I want to want to do, the short-term pleasure is usually what I want to do and want to not want to do. I think evbio explanations of adaptations maladapted for a world with different pleasure availability and a higher discount rate, where the long view is right and the short view is wrong, make a lot more sense than trying to treat the two sides symmetrically.

That said, there are certainly situations where the argument applies. When I wake up hungover, I may curse my previous night's partying, but as I'm only experiencing the downside at that moment it is not always clear to me whether I will, in a day, wish to have gotten drunk or not. But when I eat sugar, or read LW instead of working, I am usually wishing I was not doing it even while doing it, let alone days or weeks later.

Comment author: dclayh 29 May 2009 06:59:40PM 0 points [-]

I certainly agree that metawanting is involved in this phenomenon; that's part of why I requested more discussion on the topic (which Alicorn is attempting to do).