patrissimo comments on Test Your Rationality - Less Wrong

39 Post author: RobinHanson 01 March 2009 01:21PM

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Comment author: patrissimo 02 March 2009 02:49:52AM *  5 points [-]

For amateur players, sure. But there is an easily memorizable table by which to play BJ perfectly, either basic strategy or counting cards. So you always clearly know what you should do. If you are playing BJ to win, it stops being a test of rationality.

Whereas even when you become skilled at poker, it is still a constant test of rationality both because optimal strategy is complex (uncertainty about correct strategy means lots of opportunity to lie to yourself) and you want to play maximally anyway (uncertainty about whether opponent is making a mistake gives you even more chances to lie to yourself). Kinda like life...

Comment author: Annoyance 02 March 2009 09:03:45PM 3 points [-]

Whether a person memorizes and uses the table is still a viable test. No rational person playing to win would take an action incompatible with the table, and acting only in ways compatible with the table is unlikely to be accidental for an irrational person.

A way of determining whether people act rationally when it is relatively easy to do so can be quite valuable, since most people don't.