This post crystallized what I now think of as one of the major open problems in rationality, and in the (related but distinct) domain of intellectual integrity. While it doesn’t propose solutions, I think clearly articulating a problem, and becoming deconfused about it, is often a good first step for tackling hard problems.
Two criticisms I’d make of this post are:
It’d be slightly nicer if it actually had a crisp summary of the problem at the end. I felt like I understood the “open problem of ‘real’ honesty” by the end of the post, but there wasn’t a succinct paragraph I could copy into another thread to explain it. (I think this is was somewhat complicated by the final paragraphs aiming more to tie this into a critique of Meta-Honesty than to spell out the open problem)
Relatedly… I found this underwhelming as a critique of Meta-Honesty. The fact that Meta-Honesty does not solve the most important open problem in honesty (which, notably, neither does this post!) doesn’t say much about whether Meta-Honesty is still useful for other reasons. I think Zack underestimates how important clear norms around Not-Lying are. And meanwhile, when you’re in a confusing domain without a way forward, hacking away at the edges is an important tool to have in your toolbox.
Curated.
This post crystallized what I now think of as one of the major open problems in rationality, and in the (related but distinct) domain of intellectual integrity. While it doesn’t propose solutions, I think clearly articulating a problem, and becoming deconfused about it, is often a good first step for tackling hard problems.
Two criticisms I’d make of this post are:
It’d be slightly nicer if it actually had a crisp summary of the problem at the end. I felt like I understood the “open problem of ‘real’ honesty” by the end of the post, but there wasn’t a succinct paragraph I could copy into another thread to explain it. (I think this is was somewhat complicated by the final paragraphs aiming more to tie this into a critique of Meta-Honesty than to spell out the open problem)
Relatedly… I found this underwhelming as a critique of Meta-Honesty. The fact that Meta-Honesty does not solve the most important open problem in honesty (which, notably, neither does this post!) doesn’t say much about whether Meta-Honesty is still useful for other reasons. I think Zack underestimates how important clear norms around Not-Lying are. And meanwhile, when you’re in a confusing domain without a way forward, hacking away at the edges is an important tool to have in your toolbox.