srn347 comments on A cure for akrasia - Less Wrong

-2 [deleted] 28 December 2012 07:11PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 29 December 2012 03:02:50AM 1 point [-]

Certainly someone irrational enough to actually pay the $1000 would also be irrational enough to, say, set $1001 on fire (which would still be irrational even after receiving the $1000 refund).

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Comment author: PECOS-9 29 December 2012 06:46:16PM * 1 point [-]

This is an example of why just "ridding yourself of akrasia" is actually not a good goal (depending on your exact definition of akrasia), if you do it at the expense of other things (opportunity cost).

The first action (sending $1000 in) is irrational and the second (getting the refund) is not, assuming any reasonable utility function. It's like breaking your own window and then fixing it.

Comment author: [deleted] 29 December 2012 09:13:36PM 0 points [-]

Good response! Could you explain why sending in the first thousand is irrational?

Comment author: PECOS-9 29 December 2012 10:25:28PM 1 point [-]

Because by sending in the first thousand, you're knowingly making it so that you can't do anything else until you get it back. It forces you to forgo that just to get back to the position you were in before. You're not worse off, but you're still acting irrationally.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_costs

Comment author: [deleted] 29 December 2012 10:50:38PM 0 points [-]

Well, I don't think it would make a difference to Roy's point if you signed up for a program whereby you got a new $1000 every time you did something akratic. Doing akratic things just makes you very rich. The paradox (i.e. that these actions could no longer be called akratic) would remain.

Comment author: PECOS-9 30 December 2012 12:54:13AM 0 points [-]

Ah, that's not how I was interpreting it. I interpreted "incontinence" to mean "not working", rather than "not doing the rational thing." If you interpret it in the second way, then this seems to just be a fancy version of "your mission is to fail this mission," which is itself a variant of "this sentence is a lie."

srn347 comments on A cure for akrasia - Less Wrong

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