jslocum comments on Skill: The Map is Not the Territory - Less Wrong

49 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 06 October 2012 09:59AM

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Comment author: jslocum 27 February 2013 03:39:50PM 0 points [-]

I find myself to be particularly susceptible to the pitfalls avoided by skill 4. I'll have to remember to explicitly invoke the Tarski method next time I find myself in the act of attempting to fool myself.

One scenario not listed here in which I find it particularly useful to explicitly think about my own map is in cases where the map is blurry (e.g. low precision knowledge: "the sun will set some time between 5pm and 7pm") or splotchy (e.g. explicit gaps in my knowledge: "I know where the red and blue cups are, but not the green cup"). When I bring my map's flaws explicitly into my awareness, it allows me to make plans which account for the uncertainty of my knowledge, and come up with countermeasures.