hankx7787 comments on Rationality Quotes June 2012 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: OpenThreadGuy 02 June 2012 05:14PM

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

Comments (413)

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

Comment author: [deleted] 10 June 2012 12:49:25PM 1 point [-]

Emotions are generally considered instinctive, not deliberated. You could argue that anything instinctive should be thrown out until you have a chance to verify that it serves a purpose, but brains are not usually that cooperative. Knowing you have an emotion which you do not want (I get angry when people prove that I am wrong about something which I have invested a lot of time thinking about), and being able to destroy it are two different things. If you are able to act in accordance to your best plan instead of following instincts at all times, and run error correction routines to control the damage of an unwanted emotion on your beliefs you are doing something rational.

Comment author: hankx7787 10 June 2012 02:18:29PM 0 points [-]

The latter half of the quote is fine, but the first half is completely wrong and is the opposite message of what rationality says.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 10 June 2012 09:09:18PM 2 points [-]

You seem to be suffering from is-ought confusion. Yes, it would be nice to eliminate the irrational emotion, but this isn't always possible or requires too much effort to be worthwhile.

Comment author: [deleted] 10 June 2012 08:25:00PM *  0 points [-]

How's this instead?

It's easier to irrigate a field from a nearby river than it is to make the water from scratch.

Comment author: wedrifid 10 June 2012 08:47:35PM 2 points [-]

How's this instead?

It's easier to irrigate a field from a nearby river than it is to make water from scratch.

Technically false. Consider adding an extra word in there to indicate scope. Even "the" between "make water" would do. (Making an unspecified amount of water is far easier than irrigating a field from a nearby river.)

Comment author: [deleted] 10 June 2012 09:07:47PM 0 points [-]

Done, thanks.