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handoflixue comments on Scholarship: how to tell good advice from bad advice? - Less Wrong Discussion

11 Post author: ChrisHallquist 29 June 2012 02:13AM

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Comment author: handoflixue 29 June 2012 08:02:00PM 2 points [-]

I don't see that this method would necessarily result in you getting stuck dogmatically. If you refuse to acknowledge that your initial success was merely luck/accident, then it would seem easier to think "well, my method is perfect." If you realize it's a random dogma and that you could have gotten similar results from a dozen other dogmas, it encourages you to experiment and start narrowing in on the dogmas with the greatest returns.

It's also, in my experience, VERY difficult to measure success until you've had a taste of it. I was shocked the first time I did a successful exercise routine - I'd never known it could be so easy and enjoyable. Now I can quickly discard any dogma that says I'm supposed to suffer, at least until I hit a wall with my easy and enjoyable methods :)