RichardKennaway comments on Explicit and tacit rationality - Less Wrong

40 Post author: lukeprog 09 April 2013 11:33PM

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Comment author: RichardKennaway 10 April 2013 08:31:13AM 3 points [-]

I don't see a bullet. Obviously, other things matter as well as rationality. Rationality, even instrumental rationality, is not defined as winning. Those who speak as if it was are simply wrong, and your example is the obvious refutation of such silliness.

Comment author: MrMind 10 April 2013 09:04:52AM 0 points [-]

Well, the assumption here is that a better knowledge of the world gives you a better chance of achieving your goal, so rationality equals more winning only in strategical domains. Which I suspect are the majority in today's environment, but still being better looking / stronger / better armed etc. counts in certain other domains.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 10 April 2013 09:34:48AM 4 points [-]

Well, the assumption here is that a better knowledge of the world gives you a better chance of achieving your goal, so rationality equals more winning only in strategical domains.

That sentence should end at the comma. Rationality never "equals" more winning. It is, or should be, a cause (among others) of more winning. That is not a relationship that can be called "equals".

Comment author: MrMind 11 April 2013 10:07:47AM 0 points [-]

That is not a relationship that can be called "equals"

It's an incorrect translation of a figure of speech that exists in Italian but apparently not in English: the correct formulation is "rationality never decreases your probability of winning".

Comment author: RichardKennaway 11 April 2013 10:35:06AM 0 points [-]

I'm curious to know what the literal Italian would be. In English, people do often say "X is Y", "X equals Y", "X is objectively Y" (political historians will recognise that one), X means Y, etc. when X and Y are different things that the speaker is rhetorically asserting to be so closely connected as to be the same thing. For example, the extreme environmental slogan, "a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy". I believe it is a figure of speech better avoided.

Comment author: MrMind 11 April 2013 12:34:48PM 0 points [-]

Well, if you're curious: "essere razionali equivale a vincere maggiormente solo nei domini strategici". 'equivale' I translated to 'equals', but a more precise meaning would be on the line of 'implies', 'leads to'. It's used most often when listing the component of a process: "A equivale a B che equivale a C" usually is in the meaning of "A -> B -> C" rather than "A = B = C".