anonym comments on Akrasia and Shangri-La - Less Wrong

38 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 10 April 2009 08:53PM

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Comment author: Psychohistorian 10 April 2009 10:05:24PM 0 points [-]

How does one reject the hypothesis "You're failing because you aren't trying hard enough / you're doing it wrong?"

In the case of the Shangri-la bit, it obviously works, but in the "eat less, excersize more" diet, how can one conclude that the failing is in the strategy and not the user?

I'm not trying to say you're wrong; I'm genuinely curious as to how one can decide this approach fails.

Comment author: anonym 10 April 2009 11:47:52PM *  2 points [-]

Well, if you hold your diet steady but burn an extra 500 calories a day (3500 calories a week) exercising, with no significant changes to your weight, that would a pretty big indicator...