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Jiro comments on Rationality Quotes December 2013 - Less Wrong
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If you're good at something, never do it for free.
--The Joker
The Dark Knight (2008)
I'm good at blowing bubbles with bubble gum. I have yet to charge anyone for doing it.
I suppose you could say that as long as I gain pleasure from blowing bubbles I'm not doing it "for free" but that makes the statement very trivial. Under normal interpretations of "for free", the statement is wrong because there's no demand from anyone else that I blow bubbles.
I'd correct that statement to "if you're good at something, never do it under market value", which raises the possibility that I would still do for free things like blowing bubbles that have no market value.
Gum bubble fetish camming?
"I'm good at blowing bubbles with bubble gum. I have yet to charge anyone for doing it."
I think it's implied that this only applies when there is a demand for the service. Were you to find that there's a large audience for your displays, I bet you'd at least pass the hat around before doing another one.
The quote is a good one, and not because it's true.
Is the Joker's advice supposed to be sensible enough that it's worth analyzing?
Well, the Joker is supposed to be portrayed a sort of an anti-romantic - he doesn't believe in the nobility of the people, he doesn't believe in the existence of some transcendent morality - he accepts the world as being without supernatural meaning, and instead imposes his own. So while he's absolutely bonkers, I wouldn't be surprised if the writers put a few pearls of uncommon wisdom in the dialogue, even if it was just to make him seem nuttier.
Also, it might be worth analyzing just for the fun of it. That's why I visit this thread.
I don't see the Ledger Joker as irrational, merely insane. It's just his morality and ethics that are horrible. As far as reaching his goals, he is extremely (unrealistically) competent. You don't flawlessly account for every move your opponents make, in advance, for 98% of your visible career, by being totally irrational.
Unless you have plot armor.
Since his primary goal is to make Batman kill him, it's hard to say he has plot armor.
Perhaps we should call it 'irony armor'?
What he said was proposed as a rationalist quote, which presumes a level of sensibility.
I think most things have a certain type of market value, just measured using varying currencies.
As a kid, did you ever blow a big bubble and your friends were jealous? You "earned" some status points. As an adult, you can leverage this "zero-demand" skill next time you're in line next to a kid at the airport.
I think it would be possible to imagine a context where many such skills can earn you non-monetary rewards.
Yes, but “for free” normally means ‘not for money’, or at least ‘not for tangible goods’. If you take it to mean ‘for no reason at all, not even the fun of it’ it becomes nearly meaningless.