TLDR; the brain obviously wishes to avoid pain, but not at the cost of like, avoiding thinking about painful things at all costs.
Like, you don’t want to be eaten by a lion, so you avoid doing things that lead to you being eaten by lions.
But this pain avoidance shouldn’t compromise on your epistemics; you shouldn’t go so far to avoid pain as to avoid thinking about lions at all. this doesn’t work.
This is potentially also what’s going on with ugh fields. avoiding thinking about painful thoughts, as an overextension of pain-avoiding mechanisms of the brain.
Thinking about ugh fields in this way helps me actually confront them far more reliably.
Scott Alexander wrote a solid follow up to this piece last year.
TLDR; the brain obviously wishes to avoid pain, but not at the cost of like, avoiding thinking about painful things at all costs.
Like, you don’t want to be eaten by a lion, so you avoid doing things that lead to you being eaten by lions.
But this pain avoidance shouldn’t compromise on your epistemics; you shouldn’t go so far to avoid pain as to avoid thinking about lions at all. this doesn’t work.
This is potentially also what’s going on with ugh fields. avoiding thinking about painful thoughts, as an overextension of pain-avoiding mechanisms of the brain.
Thinking about ugh fields in this way helps me actually confront them far more reliably.