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paper-machine comments on [LINK] Soylent crowdfunding - Less Wrong Discussion

7 Post author: Qiaochu_Yuan 21 May 2013 07:09PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 21 May 2013 09:14:52PM 15 points [-]

Do you really want rationalists to be a group of people who aren't allowed to be optimistic?

I want rationalists to be a group of people who are as optimistic as the situation warrants.

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 21 May 2013 09:21:11PM 7 points [-]

Sure, and of course the problem in practice is figuring out what level of optimism the situation warrants. Sometimes you're not going to be optimistic enough and sometimes you're going to be too optimistic. If you're afraid of being too optimistic because you think it will make you look gullible and stupid, then you'll probably end up being too pessimistic instead, and that is also bad.

Comment author: Petruchio 22 May 2013 12:17:26PM 0 points [-]

And right now, this product is in its pre-early adoption stage. There is little need to criticize the product, since the formula will most probably be tweaked and updated after its first public release. Unless there is some question about the utility of the idea, or the capability of the inventor, I think optimism is warranted.