asparisi comments on What if "status" IS a terminal value for most people? - Less Wrong

18 Post author: handoflixue 24 December 2012 08:31PM

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Comment author: asparisi 26 December 2012 08:12:38PM 2 points [-]

Well, effectiveness and desire are two different things.

That aside, you could be posting for desires that are non-status related and still desire status. Human beings are certainly capable of wanting more than one thing at a time. So even if this post was motivated by some non-status related desire, that fact would not, in and of itself, be evidence that you don't desire status.

I'm not actually suggesting you update for you: you have a great deal more access to the information present inside your head than I do. I don't even have an evidence-based argument: merely a parsimony based one, which is weak at best. I wouldn't think of suggesting it unless I had some broader evidence that people who claim "I don't desire status" really do. I have no such evidence.

The original post was why the argument "This post is evidence that I do not seek status" is unconvincing. I was merely pointing out that even if we use your version of E, it isn't very good evidence for H. (Barring some data to change that, of course.)

Comment author: handoflixue 27 December 2012 09:11:40AM 0 points [-]

In a vacuum, and assuming a perfectly spherical point, I think we agree :)