You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

TheOtherDave comments on Practicing what you preach - Less Wrong Discussion

2 Post author: TwistingFingers 23 October 2011 06:12PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (294)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 23 October 2011 08:34:18PM 2 points [-]

Why is discussion of overcoming biases worthwhile, but not discussion of important strategies for the future of humanity?

For both subjects, if discussing them doesn't make someone better able to do something worth doing, then discussing it is not worthwhile. If it does make someone better able to do something worth doing, discussing it might be worthwhile.

It seems plausible to me that my reading, writing, and thinking about cognitive biases can noticeably help improve my understanding of, and ability to recognize, such biases. It seems plausible to me that such improvement can help me better achieve my goals. Ditto for other people. So I conclude that such discussion might be worthwhile.

It doesn't seem plausible to me that my reading, writing and thinking about CEV can noticeably help improve anyone's ability to do anything.