Qiaochu_Yuan comments on Privileging the Question - Less Wrong

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

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Comment author: FiftyTwo 26 May 2013 06:01:44PM 0 points [-]

Its a slightly unfair challenge to make, as for day to day purposes it matters less what you think the most important questions are, but what the majority, or people of high status, think is important. The obvious answer is "because I am less powerful than people who think different things are important, and they determine if I have a job/funding/social status."

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 26 May 2013 07:47:26PM 1 point [-]

Once you get to this point you're at least being honest with yourself about what you're optimizing for. If you waste an hour having a political argument with someone on Facebook, you're not even being goal-oriented enough to notice that nobody paid you to do that.