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OrphanWilde comments on Open thread, Feb. 01 - Feb. 07, 2016 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: MrMind 01 February 2016 08:24AM

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Comment author: OrphanWilde 08 February 2016 09:44:25PM 1 point [-]

Optimism changes your chances; changes the risks you will take, changes whether or not you'll employ your skills, changes how you interact with your associates.

Comment author: Lumifer 08 February 2016 09:53:36PM 0 points [-]

Optimism changes your chances

Optimism changes your behaviour, that may or may not change your chances.

In any case, on the pessimism - optimism axis both extremes look like not a good place to be. To discuss where is the sweet spot in the middle you first need the ability (vocabulary and metrics) to talk about specific locations in the middle, otherwise it's all just handwaving.