10:05am August 4, 2013

➸ Musings of Ade: shitifindon: “When facing a difficult decision, I check which...

“When facing a difficult decision, I check which considerations are consequentialist – which considerations are actually about future consequences. (Recent example from Eliezer: I bought a $1400 mattress in my quest for sleep, over the Internet hence much cheaper than the…

It’s not from LW. I gave up on LW being remotely comprehensible years ago.

It’s from a project that’s done by some of the same people (including an old friend of mine, which is pretty much the only reason I was reading it) that’s supposedly about teaching their methods to people who haven’t learned them already. Although if they manage to be that confusing in their rationality worksheet thing, they might be teaching to people who actually already know this stuff? Idk.

Another analogy involved a description of a single person taking a pay cut larger than either of my parents solidly middle class salaries at their peak. I at least sort of understood that one better, but still went o_O

(Both examples were from real life. Every example on the page was from real life. The numbers involved made me realize why that same friend could have possibly made the mistake of confusing my social circle with “just like mine, upper middle class intellectual” and then defining upper middle class as “people who’ve heard of environmentalism”, then when I tried to say my social circle at the time was entirely poor DD people, like me, her only response was “… who’ve heard of environmentalism?”)

But maybe they should choose better examples then? Because I already understand that idea, but only in some fantasy world could losing $1400 only affect my past. I’m actually $1400 in medical debt and seriously doubt I’ll be able to pay it.

And since they’re aiming that site at newbies, it’s especially important. (I knew LW wasn’t for me when I explained why I couldn’t possibly read their idea of beginners reading, and was told to read the exact same stuff I just told them I couldn’t read, and then I’d understand it. I mean other reasons too. Billions of reasons. But that was a big one.)

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