Recently, when considering why I’ve done something, I’ve been consciously distinguishing between historical cause and justification. I can’t seem to find the sequence post that prompted this effort. In the process I’ve come across some moderately vile or at least disappointing motivations. I experience considerable cognitive dissonance when I find myself doing something that appears to be right for what I consider to be the wrong reasons. Usually that involves doing something for signaling purposes that I really should have done anyway; I can’t justifiably change my behavior, but I despise signaling as a motivation.
On a separate note, when considering my personal future, I’ve been trying to make explicit predictions with probability estimates about what will happen, at least in my own head. The intent was to stem my tendancy to catastrophise, but it seems to have backfired; in cases where I was catastrophising it turned out to be correct catastrophising, and I walked around for a few days thinking things wouldn’t really be that bad when they actually were that bad. That was depressing. I intend to continue the mental predictions anyway.
In both cases I think I’ve sacrificed hedons for bayes points. I’m comfortable with the tradeoff but it’s still a tradeoff.
Sorry for taking so long to respond. I’ve been thinking about this off and on since you asked; it’s a topic on which I don’t trust my brain. I’ve come up with three possible responses, without reading your ROTed text:
I treat esse quam videri as a terminal value, and signaling seems to thwart it.
I think of signaling as inherently dishonest. (this is how it feels from the inside, but see below)
I am subconsciously trying to signal that I am a non-signaler, or that I am exceptionally honest.
The specific form of signaling I find so distasteful is Impression Management, if it’s relevent. It feels deceptive for Bottom Line reasons. I’ve been unable to expunge it from my behavior; trying to do so just ends with signaling something different on another level. It’s a bit like trying to inform someone “I don’t care what you think”; taking action inherently loses.
Now, unrotting: “in my experience, the historical cause appears to be signalling for most people.”
I interpret this as suggesting that #3 is the correct cause; am I right, or do you mean something else?
I interpret this as suggesting that #3 is the correct cause; am I right, or do you mean something else?
“The correct” is too strong; I was shooting more for “a plausible.” But it is mostly 3, but I don’t think 3 and 1 are exclusive. If esse quam videri is a neat thing for other people to think about you, then it’s worthwhile thing to signal! (I found amusing that one of the first Google Image Search results was of a tattoo of the phrase.)
My impression is that one has to do some sort of signalling, and you seem to have the same impression. It seems to me that doing it deliberately is probably better- especially if the result is deliberate white-hat signalling rather than only doing the black-hat signalling that you fail to notice is signalling.
Recently, when considering why I’ve done something, I’ve been consciously distinguishing between historical cause and justification. I can’t seem to find the sequence post that prompted this effort. In the process I’ve come across some moderately vile or at least disappointing motivations. I experience considerable cognitive dissonance when I find myself doing something that appears to be right for what I consider to be the wrong reasons. Usually that involves doing something for signaling purposes that I really should have done anyway; I can’t justifiably change my behavior, but I despise signaling as a motivation.
On a separate note, when considering my personal future, I’ve been trying to make explicit predictions with probability estimates about what will happen, at least in my own head. The intent was to stem my tendancy to catastrophise, but it seems to have backfired; in cases where I was catastrophising it turned out to be correct catastrophising, and I walked around for a few days thinking things wouldn’t really be that bad when they actually were that bad. That was depressing. I intend to continue the mental predictions anyway.
In both cases I think I’ve sacrificed hedons for bayes points. I’m comfortable with the tradeoff but it’s still a tradeoff.
I’m curious why. After you’ve thought about it: va zl rkcrevrapr, gur uvfgbevpny pnhfr nccrnef gb or fvtanyyvat sbe zbfg crbcyr.
Sorry for taking so long to respond. I’ve been thinking about this off and on since you asked; it’s a topic on which I don’t trust my brain. I’ve come up with three possible responses, without reading your ROTed text:
I treat esse quam videri as a terminal value, and signaling seems to thwart it.
I think of signaling as inherently dishonest. (this is how it feels from the inside, but see below)
I am subconsciously trying to signal that I am a non-signaler, or that I am exceptionally honest.
The specific form of signaling I find so distasteful is Impression Management, if it’s relevent. It feels deceptive for Bottom Line reasons. I’ve been unable to expunge it from my behavior; trying to do so just ends with signaling something different on another level. It’s a bit like trying to inform someone “I don’t care what you think”; taking action inherently loses.
Now, unrotting: “in my experience, the historical cause appears to be signalling for most people.”
I interpret this as suggesting that #3 is the correct cause; am I right, or do you mean something else?
“The correct” is too strong; I was shooting more for “a plausible.” But it is mostly 3, but I don’t think 3 and 1 are exclusive. If esse quam videri is a neat thing for other people to think about you, then it’s worthwhile thing to signal! (I found amusing that one of the first Google Image Search results was of a tattoo of the phrase.)
My impression is that one has to do some sort of signalling, and you seem to have the same impression. It seems to me that doing it deliberately is probably better- especially if the result is deliberate white-hat signalling rather than only doing the black-hat signalling that you fail to notice is signalling.