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Lumifer comments on Examples of Rationality Techniques adopted by the Masses - Less Wrong Discussion

12 Post author: edanm 07 June 2014 02:03PM

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Comment author: Lumifer 08 June 2014 01:29:38AM 0 points [-]

Implicit in the method is the idea of assigning weight or utility to each thing on the list, since the idea is to "weigh the outcomes and make a decision". Throw in probability assignments and quantify the utility estimates instead of doing the weighing in your head and you get an expected utility calculation.

That, I would say, is a very narrow idea of rational decision-making. Quite impractical one, too.

Comment author: TylerJay 08 June 2014 05:54:47AM 2 points [-]

That, I would say, is a very narrow idea of rational decision-making.

Well, yeah. I did say it was a very basic step, not a fully-vetted rationality method. But making a list of pros and cons is better than making decisions based on emotions or impulse and it's common enough that almost everyone is familiar with it. And it's a place to start teaching people how to do it better. The only other non-corporate examples I see here are "making lists" and "nigerian scammers" which are also very basic. I feel like it answered the request which was for "rationality techniques that have already become commonly used in the general population".

If the general population already had a lot of really good rationality techniques in common use, this wouldn't be an interesting discussion.

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