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ChristianKl comments on Rationality Quotes March 2014 - Less Wrong
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Comments (326)
Nobody got the Nobel Price in medicine for showing that smoking causes cancer because of the way the authorities dealt with the issue at the time that discovery was made.
The current policy of requiring warning labels on cigarettes doesn't seem to be very evidence based and might cause more harm that it's useful.
That's beginning the question. Different people have different opinion of what's healthy and when you read a bit on LW you will find that plenty of people agree with the official canon.
That's also a pretty broad category.
Instead of doing your three times 30 of jogging per day and sitting in front of your computer it might be better to get a walking desk and damage your ankles by jogging.
It's not quite clear that the current philosophy of what exercise is supposed to be is optimal.
You're missing the point. "Authorities are always wrong" is not only demonstrably false (I could have listed a dozen other examples), it practically invites the reader to think that reversed stupidity is intelligence. We follow the wisdom of the majority because we don't have the cognitive capacity to reason through every problem as if it were new, and by doing what the majority does in scenarios where we're not domain experts, we're at least guaranteed a "not-terrible" outcome, even if it's sub-optimal.
My interpretation is that this quote is aimed at people who do have the cognitive capacity to reason through specific problems that are important to them, but are failing to do so because they put too much trust in authorities.
I think you are heavily misreading the intent of the quote, if that's what you take from it.
The quote basically teaches the kind of relationship that Feynman had with authority. Don't believe in it just because they say so, but demand evidence and follow where the evidence leads you.
Feynman might have benefited from brushing his teeth more frequently but he still left the legacy he did because of his relationship to authority.
Saying "always wrong" is too strong if that was the intent of the quote. It would be a better quote if the author said "could be wrong".
Fair enough, I disagree with it less now that I've read it through again.
I suspect you meant to type something else. :-)
He is not wrong!
Corrected.