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drethelin comments on Against utility functions - Less Wrong
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"statement x is not currently the case and is probably unfeasible" does in fact mean we shouldn't try to act on it. Maybe we can try to act to make statement x true, but we shouldn't act as if it already is. For a more concrete example, imagine this: "I've never done a backflip. It's not even clear I can do one". We know backflips are possible, and with training you're probably going to be able to do one. But at the time you're making that statement, saying "doesn't mean you shouldn't try" is TERRIBLE advice that could get you a broken neck.
Firstly, that's kind of an uncharitable reading. If I said "I'm going to try and pass an exam" you'd naturally understand me as planning to do the requisite work first. "Backflip" just pattern-matches to 'the sort of thing silly people try to do without training'.
However, that said, I'm being disingenuous. What I really truly meant at the time I typed that was moral-should, not practical-should, which come apart if one isn't a perfect consequentialist. Which I ain't, which is at least partly the point.