Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on The Sin of Underconfidence - Less Wrong

55 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 20 April 2009 06:30AM

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Comment author: PhilGoetz 20 April 2009 03:51:31PM 8 points [-]

And so I wrote at once to the Bloggingheads folks and asked if they could arrange a debate. This seemed like someone I wanted to test myself against. Also, it was said by them that Christopher Hitchens should have watched the theist's earlier debates and been prepared, so I decided not to do that, because I think I should be able to handle damn near anything on the fly, and I desire to learn whether this thought is correct; and I am willing to risk public humiliation to find out.

This really bothers me, because you weren't just risking your own public humiliation; you were risking our public humiliation. You were endangering an important cause for your personal benefit.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 20 April 2009 04:26:50PM 2 points [-]

I've done a service or two to atheism, and will do more services in the future, and those may well depend on this test of calibration.

Comment author: PhilGoetz 20 April 2009 04:56:56PM 0 points [-]

I realize it is a tradeoff.