Today's post, Beware the Unsurprised was originally published on May 3, 2007. A summary (from the LW wiki):

If reality consistently surprises you, then your model needs revision. But beware those who act unsurprised by surprising data. Maybe their model was too vague to be contradicted. Maybe they haven't emotionally grasped the implications of the data. Or maybe they are trying to appear poised in front of others. Respond to surprise by revising your model, not by suppressing your surprise.

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Today's post, Think Like Reality was originally published on May 2, 2007. A summary (from the LW wiki):

"Quantum physics is not "weird". You are weird. You have the absolutely bizarre idea that reality ought to consist of little billiard balls bopping around, when in fact reality is a perfectly normal cloud of complex amplitude in configuration space. This is your problem, not reality's, and you are the one who needs to change."

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This post is part of a series rerunning Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts so those interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Universal Law, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Universal Law was originally published on April 29, 2007. A summary (from the LW wiki):

In our everyday lives, we are accustomed to rules with exceptions, but the basic laws of the universe apply everywhere without exception. Apparent violations exist only in our models, not in reality.

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This post is part of a series rerunning Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts so those interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Universal Fire, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Universal Fire was originally published on April 27, 2007. A summary (from the LW wiki):

You can't change just one thing in the world and expect the rest to continue working as before.

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This post is part of a series rerunning Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts so those interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Feeling Rational, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Feeling Rational was originally published on April 26, 2007. A summary (from the LW wiki):

Strong emotions can be rational. A rational belief that something good happened leads to rational happiness. But your emotions ought not to change your beliefs about events that do not depend causally on your emotions.

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This post is part of a series rerunning Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts so those interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Consolidated Nature of Morality Thread, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Consolidated Nature of Morality Thread was originally published on April 15, 2007. A summary (from the LW wiki):

Disputes about the nature of morality tend to overwhelm other discussions, so this post was intended to be a home for those tangential thoughts.

Examples of questions to be discussed here include: What is the difference between "is" and "ought" statements? Why do some preferences seem voluntary? Do children believe God can choose what is moral? Is there a systematic direction to the development of moral beliefs in history, and, if so, what is the causal explanation of this? Does Tarski's definition of truth extend to moral statements? If you were physically altered to prefer killing, would "killing is good" become true? If the truth value of a moral claim cannot be changed by any physical act, does this make the claim stronger or weaker than other claims? What are the referents of moral claims, or are they empty of content? Are there "pure" ought-statements, or do they all have is-statements mixed into them? Are there pure aesthetic judgments or preferences?

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This post is part of a series rerunning Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts so those interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Your Rationality is My Business, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, Your Rationality is My Business was originally published on April 15, 2007. A summary (from the LW wiki):

As humans, we have an interest in the future of human civilization, including the human pursuit of truth. That makes your rationality my business. However, calling out others as wrong can be a dangerous action. Some turn to relativism to avoid it, but this is too extreme. Disagreements should be met with experiments and arguments, not ignored or met with violence and edicts.

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This post is part of a series rerunning Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts so those interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was New Improved Lottery, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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Today's post, New Improved Lottery was originally publeslished on April 13, 2007. A summary (from the LW wiki):

If the opportunity to fantasize about winning was a rational justification for the lottery, we could design a "New Improved Lottery", where a single payment buys an epsilon chance of becoming a millionaire over the next five years. All your time could be spent thinking how you could become a millionaire at any moment.

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Today's post, Lotteries: A Waste of Hope was originally published on April 13, 2007. A summary (from the LW wiki):

Some defend lottery-ticket buying as a rational purchase of fantasy — paying a dollar for a day's worth of pleasant anticipation. But then your valuable brain is occupied with a fantasy whose real probability is nearly zero, investing emotional energy. Without the lottery, people might fantasize about things to actually do, which then might lead to making the fantasy a reality. To work around a bias, you must first notice it, analyze it, and decide that it is bad. Many people, such as the lottery advocates above, often fail to complete the third step.

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Today's post, Marginally Zero-Sum Efforts was originally published on April 11, 2007. A summary (from the LW wiki):

After a point, labeling a problem as "important" is a commons problem. Rather than increasing the total resources devoted to important problems, resources are taken from other projects. Some grants proposals need to be written, but eventually this process becomes zero- or negative-sum on the margin.

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This post is part of a series rerunning Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts so those interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Futuristic Predictions as Consumable Goods, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

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