hyporational comments on Rationality Quotes December 2013 - Less Wrong

7 Post author: Cyan 17 December 2013 08:43PM

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Comment author: hyporational 03 December 2013 04:40:26AM 0 points [-]

low prior likelihood of working by chance doesn't tell us that the investor probably didn't achieve their success by chance, if there are enough people trying the strategy.

Would you say the same of successful neurosurgeons? Your argument is missing something.

Comment author: Desrtopa 03 December 2013 04:01:32PM 2 points [-]

I would say the comment isn't relevant with respect to neurosurgeons, because there isn't a large body of people attempting neurosurgery, most of whom are unsucessful.

One can become rich through investment through frequent failure and occasional large success, but to be successful in neurosurgery, your success must be consistent. Successful neurosurgeons stand out among regular neurosurgeons for extra-consistent success out of a field where consistent success is already the standard.

Comment author: Lumifer 03 December 2013 05:52:07PM 7 points [-]

One can become rich through investment through frequent failure and occasional large success

Only provided you have a large initial pool of capital.

If you don't, the first few failures will knock you out at which point you stop playing the game and the future potential large success never gets realized.

Comment author: Desrtopa 05 December 2013 04:47:11PM 1 point [-]

You can start with a small pool of capital and keep it up if you're lucky with something among your first investments.

I can only speculate on how many people are in a position to experience this though, so I don't know how likely that it is that anyone ends up rich by luck by that avenue.