paper-machine comments on Self-skepticism: the first principle of rationality - Less Wrong

36 Post author: aaronsw 06 August 2012 12:51AM

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Comment author: Vaniver 07 August 2012 06:33:38PM * 5 points [-]

Mitt Romney strikes me as a fairly poor example, since from my knowledge of his pre-political life, he seems like a strong rationalist. He looks much better on the instrumental rationality side than the epistemic rationality side, but I think I would rather hang out with Mormon management consultants than atheist waiters. (At least, I think I have more to learn from the former than the latter.)

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Comment author: Vaniver 07 August 2012 07:04:47PM * 1 point [-]

He has no epistemic rationality to speak of. He can convince himself that anything is true, no matter what the evidence.

Having only interacted with his public persona, I am unwilling to comment on his private beliefs.

His professional life gives a great example of looking into the dark, though, in insisting on a "heads I win tails you lose" deal with Bain to start Bain Capital. I don't know if that was because he was generally cautious or because he stopped and asked "what if our theories are wrong?", but the latter seems more likely to me.

Comment author: wedrifid 08 August 2012 03:27:35AM * 2 points [-]

He has no epistemic rationality to speak of. He can convince himself that anything is true, no matter what the evidence.

Having only interacted with his public persona, I am unwilling to comment on his private beliefs.

The public persona, that which you can actually interact with, is the only one that matters for the purpose of choosing whether to believe what people say. If this person (I assume he is an American political figure of some sort?) happens to be a brilliant epistemic rationalists merely pretending convincingly that he is utterly (epistemically) irrational then you still shouldn't pay any attention to what he says.

Comment author: Vaniver 08 August 2012 06:03:35AM 6 points [-]

I agree that, in general, public statements by politicians should not be taken very seriously, and Romney is no exception. I think the examples of actions he's taken, particularly in his pre-political life, are more informative.

I assume he is an American political figure of some sort?

Yes. Previously, he was a management consultant who helped develop the practice of buying companies explicitly to reshape them, which was a great application of "wait, if we believe that we actually help companies, then we're in a perfect position to buy low and sell high."

paper-machine comments on Self-skepticism: the first principle of rationality - Less Wrong

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