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Anubhav comments on Quixey Challenge - Fix a bug in 1 minute, win $100. Refer a winner, win $50. - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: Liron 19 January 2012 07:39PM

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Comment author: Anubhav 21 January 2012 07:51:57AM 0 points [-]

Your sense of perspective is troubling.

Because, clearly, it is impossible for something as huge as millions of lives to depend on a an Art academy's decision.

You should also be ashamed of the narrative fallacy that follows

O RLY?

Comment author: Vaniver 21 January 2012 11:47:13PM 2 points [-]

Because, clearly, it is impossible for something as huge as millions of lives to depend on a an Art academy's decision.

Imagine, with every rejection letter the dean of admissions sends out, he has a brief moment of worry: "is this letter going to put someone on the path to becoming a mass murderer?" His sense of perspective would also be troubling, as his ability to predict the difference acceptance will have on his students' lives is insufficient to fruitfully worry about those sorts of events. It's not a statement of impossibility, it's a statement of improbability. Giving undue weight to the example of Hitler is availability bias.

O RLY?

Yes, really. I presume you've read about fictional evidence and the conjunction fallacy? If you want to argue that LW's eyeballs should be monetized, argue that directly! We'll have an interesting discussion out in the open. But assuming that LW's eyeballs should be monetized because you can construct a story in which a few dollars makes the difference between the SIAI succeeding and failing is not rational discourse. Put probabilities on things, talk about values, and we'll do some calculations.

Comment author: Anubhav 22 January 2012 02:00:53AM 3 points [-]

But assuming that LW's eyeballs should be monetized because you can construct a story in which a few dollars makes the difference between the SIAI succeeding and failing is not rational discourse.

I'd have thought that the story being as far-fetched and ludicrous as it is would've made it obvious that I was just fooling around, not making an argument. Apparently that's not actually the case.

My apologies if I accidentally managed to convince someone of the necessity of monetizing LW's eyeballs.

Comment author: Vaniver 22 January 2012 07:53:02PM 2 points [-]

I completely misunderstood your post, then. My apologies as well.