eli_sennesh comments on Rationality Quotes October 2014 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Tyrrell_McAllister 01 October 2014 11:02PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 04 October 2014 02:42:29AM -1 points [-]

That's just an argument for letting the status quo impose the Anchoring Effect on us.

Comment author: DanielLC 04 October 2014 05:07:28PM 5 points [-]

It's an argument against the Nirvana fallacy. It's not saying that we should accept the status quo. Quite the opposite. It's saying that we should reject the status quo as soon as we have a better alternative, rather than waiting for a perfect one.

Comment author: [deleted] 05 October 2014 03:20:53AM 2 points [-]

This depends on whether you are dealing with processes subject to entropic decay (they break apart and "die" without effort-input) or entropic growth (they optimize under their own power). For the former case, the Nirvana fallacy remains a fallacy; for the latter case, you are in deep trouble if you try to go with the first "good enough" alternative rather than defining a unique best solution and then trying to hit it as closely as possible.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 04 October 2014 06:17:18PM 2 points [-]

Maybe it should. That's what Chesterton's Fence is.