conchis comments on A Parable On Obsolete Ideologies - Less Wrong

113 Post author: Yvain 13 May 2009 10:51PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (272)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: hrishimittal 15 May 2009 03:13:52PM 5 points [-]

there's no long-term benefit associated with its removal.

The first step in solving a problem is to recognise it. If I discovered I have cancer I would be demoralised immensely but I'd prefer that and take a shot at recovering rather than die unknowingly.

Denial is not a path to improvement.

Comment author: conchis 17 May 2009 03:48:43PM *  0 points [-]

Denial is not a path to improvement.

I agree that denial usually seems like a bad idea, but the problem with things like stereotype threat is that they suggest (and more importantly provide evidence) that sometimes it might actually be useful (a path to improvement, even if not necessarily the first-best path).

The trick, presumably, is to distinguish the situations when this will hold from those when it doesn't.