Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on The Importance of Saying "Oops" - Less Wrong

55 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 05 August 2007 03:17AM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 07 August 2007 06:03:56PM 2 points [-]

It would be possible to recognize large mistakes too early, rather than too late. Can anyone here think of any case where they've ever seen a human being do that?

Comment author: ABranco 20 October 2009 04:36:15AM 4 points [-]

I admit I don't remember any case of people publicly affirming, out of the blue: "I am damn wrong, big time!".

No homeopath waking up in a regular Tuesday and declaring "Gee!, I'm sorry, I've read an article and realized I've been medicating people with this placebo 'Styrofoam' little balls for the last five years and now I see this was insane. I am publicly apologizing for my patients. I quit. But I am happy that I can see it now, and can still become a specialist in something else."

Confirmation bias seems to grow stronger the more the time passes, and the more public their opinion gets.

(I know this is an ooooold post, but since I thought about it, why not reply?)

Comment author: stoppin_by 03 July 2015 04:02:29AM *  0 points [-]

Sure. Assuming you desire a long term romantic relationship, if you end all romantic relationships that you see as most likely insufficiently desirable for a long term relationship there is a good chance you will not develop a good enough grasp of relationship etiquette, skills, & problem solving to appease a candidate that they would deem as a sufficiently desirable long term romantic companion. That behavior wouldn't strictly prevent the person from finding someone who would put up with their lack of knowledge but it sure would have a non-negligible probability of doing so.