IAWYC, modulo the use of “should”: at least with connotations assumed on Less Wrong, it isn’t associated with compulsion or emotional load, it merely denotes preference. “Ought” would be closer.
IAWYC, modulo the use of “should”: at least with connotations assumed on Less Wrong, it isn’t associated with compulsion or emotional load, it merely denotes preference. “Ought” would be closer.
It’s true that in technical contexts “should” has less emotional connotation; however even in say, standards documents, one capitalizes SHOULD and MUST to highlight the technical, rather than colloquial sense of these words. Banishing them from one’s personal vocabulary greatly reduces suffering, and is the central theme of “The Work” of Byron Katie (who teaches a simple 4-question model for turning “shoulds” into facts and felt-preferences).
Among a community of rationalists striving for better communication, it would be helpful to either taboo the words or create alternatives. As it is, a lot of “shoulds” get thrown around here without reference to what goal or preference the shoulds are supposed to serve.
“One should X” conveys no information about what positive or negative consequences are being asserted to stem from doing or not-doing X—and that’s precisely the sort of information that we would like to have if we are to understand each other.
Agreed. Even innocuous-looking exceptions, like phrases of the form, “if your goal is to X, then you should Y”, have to make not-necessarily-obvious assumptions about what exactly Y is optimizing.
Avoiding existing words is in many cases a counterproductive injunction, it’s a normal practice when words get stolen for terms of art. Should refers to a sum total of ideal preference, the top level terminal goal, over all of the details (consequences) together.
Should may require a consequentialist explanation for instrumental actions, or a moral argument for preference over consequences.
IAWYC, modulo the use of “should”: at least with connotations assumed on Less Wrong, it isn’t associated with compulsion or emotional load, it merely denotes preference. “Ought” would be closer.
It’s true that in technical contexts “should” has less emotional connotation; however even in say, standards documents, one capitalizes SHOULD and MUST to highlight the technical, rather than colloquial sense of these words. Banishing them from one’s personal vocabulary greatly reduces suffering, and is the central theme of “The Work” of Byron Katie (who teaches a simple 4-question model for turning “shoulds” into facts and felt-preferences).
Among a community of rationalists striving for better communication, it would be helpful to either taboo the words or create alternatives. As it is, a lot of “shoulds” get thrown around here without reference to what goal or preference the shoulds are supposed to serve.
“One should X” conveys no information about what positive or negative consequences are being asserted to stem from doing or not-doing X—and that’s precisely the sort of information that we would like to have if we are to understand each other.
Agreed. Even innocuous-looking exceptions, like phrases of the form, “if your goal is to X, then you should Y”, have to make not-necessarily-obvious assumptions about what exactly Y is optimizing.
Avoiding existing words is in many cases a counterproductive injunction, it’s a normal practice when words get stolen for terms of art. Should refers to a sum total of ideal preference, the top level terminal goal, over all of the details (consequences) together.
Should may require a consequentialist explanation for instrumental actions, or a moral argument for preference over consequences.
Agreed. This is one of the major themes of some (most?) meditation practices and seems to be one of the most useful.
I seriously doubt we’re capable of not associating it with those things, though.
I think of “should” and “ought” as exactly synonymous, btw.