tingram comments on Rationality Quotes December 2013 - Less Wrong

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

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (457)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: tingram 21 December 2013 08:53:48PM 5 points [-]

A cucumber is bitter--throw it away. There are briars in the path--turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, "And why were such things put into the world?"

--Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.50

Comment author: ema 22 December 2013 06:00:40PM 10 points [-]

If you get one bitter cucumber, asking for its cause may be a waste of time. But if you get a lot of bitter cucumbers, spending some time on changing that might give net positive utility.

Comment author: DanielLC 30 December 2013 05:49:49AM 4 points [-]

Why not? It can be useful to know whether they were placed there by a benevolent god or a blind idiot god.