gworley comments on Fighting Akrasia: Incentivising Action - Less Wrong

8 Post author: gworley 29 April 2009 01:48PM

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Comment author: pjeby 30 April 2009 02:48:01PM 1 point [-]

Here we get into rather muddy water, but to be brief, although other people may be so lucky as to not need a workaround to do something, remember that individual brains in humans are not the same thing as the statistical regularity that we call a human brain. While some individual may not have a particular psychological trait, other people do, and overall we can assess whether a particular trait is common to most people (there will always be exceptions due to random variation). Further, although some person may have a brain that makes it easy to achieve some goal, this doesn't mean that every person has a brain that can be tuned to function in the same way.

Are you claiming, then, to have been born without the ability to achieve any goal? If so, the fact that you managed to post this comment would appear to falsify that claim.

Also, you seem to be using all the power of your intelligence to defend the position that you are helpless; this seems like a poor use of that intelligence. As Eliezer says, the problem with selective application of arguments is that the smarter you get, the stupider you become.

It might be more useful for you to look at how you successfully achieve certain goals, so you can find out what you're doing differently in those contexts.

Comment author: gworley 30 April 2009 04:19:38PM 1 point [-]

It might be more useful for you to look at how you successfully achieve certain goals, so you can find out what you're doing differently in those contexts.

And that's exactly what we're doing here. We're not helpless, just helpless to change certain things in certain ways.

Comment author: pjeby 30 April 2009 05:46:54PM -1 points [-]

We're not helpless, just helpless to change certain things in certain ways.

So, you've never achieved anything in your life without some kind of external carrot or stick, then? Is that what you're saying?

Comment author: gworley 01 May 2009 01:42:36PM 0 points [-]

Of course not. I do things all the time without the reward existing outside myself. I eat because I'm hungry, and to my mind, although I can imagine all kinds of things that benefit from my not being hungry, I think it's safe to say that I eat primarily because I don't want to be hungry (I assume the brain's goal system is this shallow when it comes to hunger, though it may be deeper and I just don't know it).