= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Lumifer comments on Power and difficulty - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (49)
This seems true, but obvious. I'm not sure that I buy that fiction promotes this idea: IMO, fiction usually glosses over how the characters got their powers because it's boring. Some real-life examples of power for cheap would be very useful. Here are some suggestions:
Anyone have other real-world suggestions?
None of your examples look like they provide power for cheap.
I disagree.
1 and 2 are "negative": avoiding common failure modes.
3 and 4 are "positive": ways to get "more bang for your buck" than you "normally" would.
A list of useful things to do, or a list of effective ways to do something are not ways to get "power for cheap".
Avoiding minor failure modes does not get you power. Getting a little bit more bang for your buck is still not "power for cheap".
I was using "power" in the sense of the OP (which is just: more time/skills/influence). Sorry the examples aren't as dramatic as you would like; unfortunately, I can't think of more dramatic examples.
I had that problem too (from the commentary here, this lack of specific examples is the post's biggest issue) -- whatever examples I could come up with seemed distinctly unspectacular.
However, I think avoiding common failure modes -- being less wrong -- is a decent way to increase the expected value of your power.
Unfortunately, it seems much easier to list particularly inefficient uses of time than particularly efficient uses of time :P I guess it all depends on your zero point.
I think that's the point :-)