AdeleneDawner comments on Applied Picoeconomics - Less Wrong

46 Post author: Yvain 17 June 2009 04:08PM

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Comment author: AdeleneDawner 28 December 2009 11:09:54AM 10 points [-]

I don't see how that redeems the comment.

Comment author: wedrifid 28 December 2009 01:14:37PM 3 points [-]

I don't see how that redeems the comment.

I tend to agree.

I would perhaps make an exception for the context if I thought Zack's strategy was even remotely effective. But I'm not going to encourage futile self flagellation by allowing self directed slander an exception to my usual standards. Here isn't the place for calling people retarded, particularly when their problem has almost nothing to do with delayed or substandard intellectual development.

A more useful criticism would be:

Insane. Insane. Insane. Insane.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Comment author: pdf23ds 28 December 2009 05:35:30PM *  9 points [-]

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

That's a stupid quote. The fact that it's often attributed to Ben Franklin is even more ridiculous. Insanity (psychological problems) rarely includes that as a symptom, and even when it does it's only a small part of the problem. (OCD doesn't count, because the compulsion doesn't include a belief that this time will be any different.)

Replace "insanity" with "stupidity" and the quote isn't quite as stupid.

Comment author: MatthewB 28 December 2009 05:48:00PM 3 points [-]

I have a particularly nasty relationship with that particular quote. And, an even more toxic relationship with the group that seems to popularize that quote. Seems that they are the bastion of an acutely massive amount of crazy themselves, yet seem to be blind to that fact.

Comment author: summerstay 07 May 2012 12:36:08PM 0 points [-]

Oh, it's not so bad a quote. If we define sanity around here as being more Bayesian (that's the waterline we're trying to raise, right?) then defining insanity as refusal to update when more data comes would make sense.