keefe comments on Rationality and Winning - Less Wrong

19 Post author: lukeprog 04 May 2012 06:31PM

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Comment author: keefe 09 May 2012 04:10:11PM 1 point [-]

I think it's appropriate to separate work ethic and akrasia mastery from rationality. Saying that work ethic is a choice is, imho, a relatively simplistic view. People often get fired for something trivial (smoking when a drug test is coming up, repeated absence, etc) that they know full well is a suboptimal decision and the short term benefits of getting high (or whatever) override their concern for the long term possible consequences. I think it makes sense to make some distinction that rationality is the ability to select the right path to walk and self discipline is the wherewithal to walk it.

I wonder how well defined "my goals" are here or how much to trust expectations. I think a rough approximation could involve these various systems generating some impulse map and then OPFC and some other structures get involved in selecting an action. I don't think a closed form expression of a goal is required in order to say that the goal exists.