Rationality Quotes September 2012

Jayson_Virissimo

Here's the new thread for posting quotes, with the usual rules:

Please post all quotes separately, so that they can be voted up/down separately. (If they are strongly related, reply to your own comments. If strongly ordered, then go ahead and post them together.)
Do not quote yourself
Do not quote comments/posts on LW/OB
No more than 5 quotes per person per monthly thread, please.

Here's the new thread for posting quotes, with the usual rules:

Please post all quotes separately, so that they can be voted up/down separately. (If they are strongly related, reply to your own comments. If strongly ordered, then go ahead and post them together.)
Do not quote yourself
Do not quote comments/posts on LW/OB
No more than 5 quotes per person per monthly thread, please.

If you can't criticise, you can't optimise.

-Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

Downvoted since HPMoR is or should be included in the "Do not quote comments/posts on LW/OB" rule.

-4wedrifid14y

False. Criticism and optimization overlap highly in the nature of the reasoning but it is possible to construct an optimizer that is not capable of criticism. If you really want one. I'm not sure what exactly Harry's intended human-level practical point is---some applications apply even though the claim is technically false but some may not.