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ChristianKl comments on Open thread, 11-17 March 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: David_Gerard 11 March 2014 10:45PM

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Comment author: ChristianKl 12 March 2014 01:02:56PM 0 points [-]

If it turns out I've been assuming unpredictability when I should be trusting my predictions, I'll have to reevaluate some of the choices I've made.

There only one way to find out. Write your predictions down and calibrate yourself.

Comment author: [deleted] 12 March 2014 04:32:34PM 1 point [-]

This actually assumes that the Bayesian model is accurate.

Under Black Swan Theory, you can't use past correct predictions to predict future correct predictions.

For example, most of the variance in the stock market is distributed over a few days in history. I could have calibrated on every day leading up to one of those days and felt confident in my ability to predict the stock market... but just one of those days could have wiped out my portfolio.

Calibration actually makes you necessarily overconfident in the Black Swan view of the world.

Comment author: ChristianKl 13 March 2014 09:32:09AM 1 point [-]

You don't need to assume that things are normally distributed to be a Bayesian.

People who calibrate themselves usually don't get more confident through the process but less confident.

I could have calibrated on every day leading up to one of those days and felt confident in my ability to predict the stock market... but just one of those days could have wiped out my portfolio.

Don't calibrate on a single variable.

Comment author: [deleted] 14 March 2014 01:51:44AM 1 point [-]

You don't need to assume that things are normally distributed to be a Bayesian.

But you do need to assume that somehow you can predict novel events based on previous data

Just going back to my stock market example, what variables would I have calibrated on to predict 9/11 and it's effects on the stock market?

Comment author: ChristianKl 14 March 2014 11:25:29AM *  1 point [-]

I'm not arguing that you can predict the stock market. What you can do is calibrate yourself enough to see that it's frequently doing things that you didn't predict.