RobbBB comments on Privileging the Question - Less Wrong

102 Post author: Qiaochu_Yuan 29 April 2013 06:30PM

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Comment author: RobbBB 30 April 2013 12:40:28AM *  1 point [-]

'Unexpected things happen all the time' isn't necessarily a reason to be less surprised by specific especially unexpected things. The reason Eliezer's post isn't crazy super surprising isn't that surprising things are (surprisingly?) common; it's that it's relatively ordinary (in-character, etc.) for its reference class.

Comment author: MugaSofer 01 May 2013 05:41:30PM -1 points [-]

Except surprising things are surprisingly common. Most people overestimate the likelihood that their model is correct.

But this doesn't seem like a great example of that, yeah. I was sort of pattern-matching this into the wider discussion (is it worth figuring out if the earth will crash into the sun?)