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Vaniver comments on Rationality Quotes October 2012 - Less Wrong
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This belief seems to me very convenient for the brilliant, implying that they got where they are by hard work and properly deserve everything they have. Of course brilliant people also have to put in hard work, but their return on investment is much higher than many other contenders who may have put in even more work for lower total returns. Just-world hypothesis; life is not this fair. And while I do go about preaching the virtue of Hufflepuff, I also go about saying that people should try to Huffle where they have comparative advantage.
My reading of the quote is that empiricism is superior to rationalism (the old philosophical schools, not the sort we discuss here). If I have a proof that my bridge will hold a thousand pounds, and it breaks under a hundred, then the experiment trumps the proof.
By "proof", do you mean experimental evidence, or armchair rationalization?
A correct mathematical proof based on an experimentally verified model of bridges and seemingly obvious assumptions about your particular bridge.
That doesn't sound like the sort of thing a rationalist (in the sense Vaniver was using) would care for at all.