brazil84 comments on Rationality Quotes April 2014 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: elharo 07 April 2014 05:25PM

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Comment author: Eugine_Nier 23 April 2014 12:08:52AM 1 point [-]

By analogy, if the auto mechanic charged you $500 to change your brakes, and after he was done with the car the brakes still didn't work,

What if the brakes now work, but not necessarily quite as well as they did before? If an auto mechanic tells you your car is totaled, how do you know he's correct?

Do you agree that with plumbers and auto mechanics it is a lot easier to assess how good they are compared to lawyers since if they do their job properly, the problem they are working on will normally be solved and if they do not do their job properly, the problem will normally not be solved?

That depends on the details of the problem. In a sense the same is true for lawyers. I agree that there are quantitative differences about exactly how likely you are to get a good estimate with what amount of certainty between these examples but I don't think it's large enough to make a qualitative difference in the analysis.

Comment author: brazil84 23 April 2014 08:53:46AM 0 points [-]

What if the brakes now work, but not necessarily quite as well as they did before? If an auto mechanic tells you your car is totaled, how do you know he's correct?

That depends on the details of the problem. In a sense the same is true for lawyers. I agree that there are quantitative differences about exactly how likely you are to get a good estimate with what amount of certainty between these examples but I don't think it's large enough to make a qualitative difference in the analysis.

Those are interesting questions, but unfortunately you have basically ignored two of the three questions I asked you. As mentioned above,these were real questions aimed at getting a better grip on where we agree. It's difficult enough to discuss these kinds of things without having the other person dance around the issues. I don't engage with people who do this . . . .goodbye.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 24 April 2014 01:49:51AM 1 point [-]

Those are interesting questions, but unfortunately you have basically ignored two of the three questions I asked you.

I figured the answers to those were easy to extrapolate from what I wrote, in any case here they are.

Do you agree that in litigation there is a much more of a problem of extraneous factors making it difficult to assess the lawyer than extraneous factors in auto repair making it difficult to assess the mechanic?

I agree that this is more of a problem for lawyers, although I'm not sure how much more.

Do you agree there are also problems with doctors spending energy on signalling, (although perhaps not as bad as with lawyers), for example, caring about where a doctor went to medical school; prestigious internships; and spending money on impressive facilities?

It is, but I've never heard anyone say that there is no point going to anything besides the top tier medical schools.

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