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.

grouchymusicologist comments on My Best Case vs Your Worst Case - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: HalMorris 03 January 2013 02:11PM

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

Comments (9)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: grouchymusicologist 03 January 2013 04:28:51PM *  14 points [-]

Scott Lemieux once called this the "my-utopia-versus-your-grubby-reality asymmetry," a delightful turn of phrase which has stuck with me since I read it.

Although Lemieux was talking about something subtly different from, or possibly a subset of, what you're talking about: the practice of describing the benefits of your own preferences as if you could completely and down to the smallest detail redesign the relevant system from scratch, while insisting on subjecting your opponent's preferences to a rigorous "how do we get there from here" analysis with all the compromises, imperfections, and unforeseeable obstacles the real world always entails.

Comment author: HalMorris 03 January 2013 05:21:32PM 2 points [-]

I like that, but maybe it's just a bit too long to stick.

It seems so automatic in so many people, that I wouldn't be surprised if one day an associated neural mechanism was discovered.