B. We is a loaded term, speak for yourself. There’s benefit to realizing that as a human you have bias. There’s no benefit to declaring that you can’t overcome some of this bias.
B. Agreed that there’s benefit to realizing we have bias, disagree that there’s no benefit to declaring some biases aren’t overcomeable. Trying to overcome biases takes effort. Wasted effort is bad. It’s better to pursue mixed strategies that aim at instrumental rationality than to aim at the perfection described in the Rand quotation. Thoughts that seem complex or messy should not be something we shy away from, reality is complicated and our brains are imperfect.
A. I don’t know how to describe how to do it, but I do it all the time. It’s something humans have to fight against to avoid doing, as it’s essentially automatic under normal conditions.
Trying to overcome biases takes effort. Wasted effort is bad. It’s better to pursue mixed strategies that aim at instrumental rationality
I think you are assuming hyperbolic discounting/short time preference. It requires a lot of effort to overcome bias, perhaps years. But there are times when it is worth it.
than to aim at the perfection described in the Rand quotation
What perfection? Choosing philosophy? You can always update your philosophy.
It requires a lot of effort to overcome bias, perhaps years. But there are times when it is worth it.
There are also times when it’s not worth it, in my opinion.
What perfection?
Rand contrasts “a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation” with “a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, thrown together by chance, but integrated by your subconscious into a kind of mongrel philosophy and fused into a single, solid weight: self-doubt, like a ball and chain”.
I think it’s possible to avoid becoming such a disgrace without scrupulously logical deliberation. Most people are severely biased but are not as unhappy or helpless as Rand’s argument would imply. Trimming the excesses of our biases seems more reasonable than eliminating them, to me.
A. How would you implement that choice?
B. We is a loaded term, speak for yourself. There’s benefit to realizing that as a human you have bias. There’s no benefit to declaring that you can’t overcome some of this bias.
C Wouldn’t that depend on your philosophy?
C. Yes.
B. Agreed that there’s benefit to realizing we have bias, disagree that there’s no benefit to declaring some biases aren’t overcomeable. Trying to overcome biases takes effort. Wasted effort is bad. It’s better to pursue mixed strategies that aim at instrumental rationality than to aim at the perfection described in the Rand quotation. Thoughts that seem complex or messy should not be something we shy away from, reality is complicated and our brains are imperfect.
A. I don’t know how to describe how to do it, but I do it all the time. It’s something humans have to fight against to avoid doing, as it’s essentially automatic under normal conditions.
I think you are assuming hyperbolic discounting/short time preference. It requires a lot of effort to overcome bias, perhaps years. But there are times when it is worth it.
What perfection? Choosing philosophy? You can always update your philosophy.
There are also times when it’s not worth it, in my opinion.
Rand contrasts “a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation” with “a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, thrown together by chance, but integrated by your subconscious into a kind of mongrel philosophy and fused into a single, solid weight: self-doubt, like a ball and chain”.
I think it’s possible to avoid becoming such a disgrace without scrupulously logical deliberation. Most people are severely biased but are not as unhappy or helpless as Rand’s argument would imply. Trimming the excesses of our biases seems more reasonable than eliminating them, to me.