Aurora comments on Rationality Quotes October 2012 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: MBlume 02 October 2012 06:50PM

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Comment author: Fyrius 04 October 2012 01:07:20PM 12 points [-]

It's always "you can do anything" and never "you can do more than you currently believe you're capable of" with these motivational quotes.

Comment author: Aurora 05 October 2012 02:32:31AM 0 points [-]

"more than you currently believe you're capable of" is any-thing.

Comment author: wedrifid 05 October 2012 08:10:12AM *  3 points [-]

"more than you currently believe you're capable of" is any-thing.

No, it is "not less than one thing that is not in the set of things that you believe you are capable of". "Anything" includes "more than you currently believe you're capable of" but the reverse isn't true.

To make it tangible, someone who believes they wouldn't be able to get a date with a particular prospective mate when they in fact could and also believes they can not fly at faster than the speed of light is capable of doing more than they believe they are capable of but it still isn't correct to tell them "you can do anything". Because they in fact cannot fly faster than the speed of light.

Comment author: Fyrius 06 October 2012 08:44:36AM 3 points [-]

Right. More concisely put: If you do so-and-so, it may expand the set of things you can attain, but it won't remove all limitations.