swestrup comments on The Costs of Rationality - Less Wrong

32 Post author: RobinHanson 03 March 2009 06:13PM

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Comment author: swestrup 10 March 2009 12:57:44AM 1 point [-]

You decided to try achieving that "non-rational" goal, so it must be to your benefit (at least, you must believe so).

Yes, exactly. The fact that you think its to your benefit, but it isn't, is the very essence of what I mean by a non-rational goal.

Comment author: Yosarian2 28 January 2013 03:09:51AM 1 point [-]

That might actually be the main cost of rationality. You may have goals that will hurt you if you actually achieve them, and by not being rational, you manage to not achieve those goals, making your life better. Perhaps, in fact, people avoid rationality because they don't really want to achieve those goals, they just think they want to.

There's an Amanda Palmer song where the last line is "I don't want to be the person that I want to be."

Of course, if you become rational enough, you may be able to untangle those confused goals and conflicting desires. There's a dangerous middle ground, though, where you may get just better at hurting yourself.