But we can use one of these explanations (your hidden goal is to optimize status, etc.) to predict yet-unobserved behavior in other contexts.
In the case of “did I answer an easier / more accessible question than was really posed?”, you may just be inventing a new just-so story in every case. So like all self-help/productivity tricks, I can use one hoping that they remind me to act more deliberately when it matters, more than they waste our energy, but I can’t be sure it’s more than placebo.
Well put.
But we can use one of these explanations (your hidden goal is to optimize status, etc.) to predict yet-unobserved behavior in other contexts.
In the case of “did I answer an easier / more accessible question than was really posed?”, you may just be inventing a new just-so story in every case. So like all self-help/productivity tricks, I can use one hoping that they remind me to act more deliberately when it matters, more than they waste our energy, but I can’t be sure it’s more than placebo.