David_W comments on Evaluability (And Cheap Holiday Shopping) - Less Wrong

25 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 28 November 2007 12:37AM

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Comment author: David_W 29 November 2007 03:55:09PM 15 points [-]

This advice on Christmas gifts will only work if you leave the price tag on, or if your recipient is sophisticated enough to recognize, say, that a particular scarf is worth $45. I once opened a package that I received in a gift-swap game that contained a (to my eyes, rather ordinary) Christmas ornament. My face must not have shown the proper appreciation, as my wife then whispered to me that this was a *very expensive* ornament. Evidently the givers had instinctively followed the "expensive junk" philosophy but the effect was nearly lost on unsophisticated me.