RobinHanson comments on Unteachable Excellence - Less Wrong

36 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 02 March 2009 03:33PM

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Comment author: RobinHanson 02 March 2009 06:56:14PM 5 points [-]

Summary: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Comment author: MichaelHoward 02 March 2009 10:32:19PM 6 points [-]

That's a good lesson too, but isn't the post more about how lessons in avoiding disasters, though un-glamourous, are useful because they tend to work across domains, whereas genuinely useful shortcuts-to-excellence lessons tend to be more domain-specific?

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 02 March 2009 10:44:28PM 7 points [-]

That, plus the idea that in a hunter-gatherer tribe, the idols to emulate are probably people not too distant from you, but one Warren Buffett out of the whole world might involve rarer luck, rarer genes, and harder skills to learn.