LESSWRONG
LW

0
0

All of Yosarian T's Comments + Replies

Your Cheerful Price
Yosarian T
340

I do really like this essay. It's generally a good idea, and there are a lot of situations where I would find this idea useful.

One thing I want to dive into a little bit here is this:

 

Fine, to be wholly frank, I do tend to see the indignant reaction "How dare you price that in money!" as a sign that somebody was brought up generally economically illiterate. 

I do think there are things, especially in terms of social interactions and between friends, that really shouldn't have a price on them, because they're things that only make sense if they're ... (read more)

Reply
2Oliver Sourbut
Interesting thought. Could I crudely summarize the above contribution like this? It has the interesting corollary that Where does the discrete downside come from? The following is pure speculation and introspection. I guess we have 'willing price ranges' (our executive would agree in this range) and 'cheerful price ranges' (our whole being would agree in this range). If we all agree (perhaps implicitly) that some collective fun thing should entail $0 transaction, then (even if we all say it's a cheerful price) some of us may be cheerful and others merely willing. It's a shame but not too socially damaging if someone is willing but pretending to be cheerful. There is at least common knowledge of a reasonable guarantee that everyone partaking (executively) agrees that the thing is intrinsically fun and worth doing which is a socially safe state. On the other hand, if we agree that some alleged 'collective fun thing' should entail $nonzero transaction, similarly (even if we all say it's a cheerful price) some of us may be cheerful and others merely willing at that price point. But while it's still consistent that we all executively agree the thing is intrinsically fun and worthwhile it's no longer guaranteed (because it's consistent to believe that someone's willing price excludes $0 and they are only coming along because of the fee). Perhaps even bringing up the question of a fee raises that possibility? And countenancing that possibility can be socially/emotionally harmful? (Because it entails disagreement about preferences? Especially if the collective fun thing is an explicitly social activity, like your party example.) Further speculative corollary
Six economics misconceptions of mine which I've resolved over the last few years
Yosarian T
10

In an economy where the relative wealth of rich and poor people is constant, poor people and rich people both have consumption equal to their income.

Don't rich people tend to die with a significant portion of their lifetime income unspent, while poor people don't?

Reply
Engaging Seriously with Short Timelines
Yosarian T
70

I think there's a wide range of scenarios where narrow ai make certain companies more profitable and replaces a lot of jobs and maybe changes society as much as the industrial revolution did, without tipping over into recursive self improvement of that type. Or at least not right away.

Reply
Adding Up To Normality
Yosarian T
10

I agree with this, but a counterpoint is that it's very hard for people to change longstanding habits and behaviors at all, and sometimes a major internal update is a good moment to make significant behavior changes because that's the only time most people can manage major behavioral changes at all.

Reply
Meta-Honesty: Firming Up Honesty Around Its Edge-Cases
Yosarian T
10

Yeah, this correct. Also, I think "I'm fine" generally literally true in the narrow sense, since it's literally true that, for example, I am not in urgent need of medical attention at this moment.

If I was literally bleeding to death and someone asked my how I was and I said "I'm fine", people would take that to be a falsehood in some sense. But if I'm physically healthy but emotionally upset, and someone asked me how I was and I said "fine", people don't consider that a lie, because it isn't one,... (read more)

Reply
How Doomed are Large Organizations?
Yosarian T
40

This essay and sequence has really helped me put into words why I love the current school I teach at, even though it objectivly should be a mess in a lot of ways. (Students with a low socioeconomic status, high violence rate in the neighborhood, underfunded, physical school building that is literally falling apart, etc). Nonetheless it has a much better culture than most other schools I've taught at, in ways that both students and teachers are aware of, and it's a lot more effective at actually teaching students than even much more well-off schoo... (read more)

Reply