Bumping this up to two nominations not because I think it needs a review, but because I like it and it captures an important insight that I’ve not seen written up like this elsewhere.
In my own life, these insights have led me to do/considering doing things like:
not sharing private information even with my closest friends—in order for them to know in future that I’m the kind of agent who can keep important information (notice that there is the counterincentive that, in the moment, sharing secrets makes you feel like you have a stronger bond with someone—even though in the long-run it is evidence to them that you are less trustworthy)
building robustness between past and future selves (e.g. if I was excited about and had planned for having a rest day, but then started that day by work and being really excited by work, choosing to stop work and decide to rest such that different parts of me learn that I can make and keep inter-temporal deals (even if work seems higher ev in the moment))
being more angry with friends (on the margin) -- to demonstrate that I have values and principles and will defend those in a predictable way, making it easier to coordinate with and trust me in future (and making it easier for me to trust others, knowing I’m capable of acting robustly to defend my values)
thinking about, in various domains, “What would be my limit here? What could this person do such that I would stop trusting them? What could this organisation do such that I would think their work is net negative?” and then looking back at those principles to see how things turned out
not sharing passwords with close friends, even for one-off things—not because I expect them to release or lose it, but simply because it would be a security flaw that makes them more vulnerable to anyone wanting to get to me. It’s a very unlikely scenario, but I’m choosing to adopt a robust policy across cases, and it seems like useful practice
Bumping this up to two nominations not because I think it needs a review, but because I like it and it captures an important insight that I’ve not seen written up like this elsewhere.
In my own life, these insights have led me to do/considering doing things like:
not sharing private information even with my closest friends—in order for them to know in future that I’m the kind of agent who can keep important information (notice that there is the counterincentive that, in the moment, sharing secrets makes you feel like you have a stronger bond with someone—even though in the long-run it is evidence to them that you are less trustworthy)
building robustness between past and future selves (e.g. if I was excited about and had planned for having a rest day, but then started that day by work and being really excited by work, choosing to stop work and decide to rest such that different parts of me learn that I can make and keep inter-temporal deals (even if work seems higher ev in the moment))
being more angry with friends (on the margin) -- to demonstrate that I have values and principles and will defend those in a predictable way, making it easier to coordinate with and trust me in future (and making it easier for me to trust others, knowing I’m capable of acting robustly to defend my values)
thinking about, in various domains, “What would be my limit here? What could this person do such that I would stop trusting them? What could this organisation do such that I would think their work is net negative?” and then looking back at those principles to see how things turned out
not sharing passwords with close friends, even for one-off things—not because I expect them to release or lose it, but simply because it would be a security flaw that makes them more vulnerable to anyone wanting to get to me. It’s a very unlikely scenario, but I’m choosing to adopt a robust policy across cases, and it seems like useful practice