Get to the stupid questions after all the sensible questions have been exhausted if, for some reason, the expected utility of the next least stupid question is still positive.
I think we need to find out what we mean by stupid and sensible questions.
Of course one should in any given situation perform the experiments (ask questions) that gives highes expected information (largest number of bits) yield, I.E. ask if it is a vertebrae before you ask if it is a dog. What I think we disagree upon is the nature of a stupid question.
And now, it seems I cannot come up with a good definition of a stupid question as anything I previously would refer to as a “stupid question” can be equally reduced to humility.
From a slightly different perspective we could say that asking ‘silly’ questions (even good silly questions) costs status while asking stupid questions can potentially gain status in those cases where the people who hear you ask are themselves stupid (or otherwise incentivised to appreciate a given stupid gesture).
Personally, I think Robin Hanson tends to treat status as a hammer that turns all issues into nails; it’s certainly possible to overuse a perspective for analyzing social interaction. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t cases where you can only get a meaningful picture of social actions by taking it into consideration.
Nowadays, I can ask a question of the entire WEIRD world without losing any status. There are still some that just aren’t worth wasting my time on. For example: Is the moon actually a moose?
No, but worrying about status can keep you from getting answers to your ‘stupid’ questions.
This is partly why nerds have largely internalized the “there are no stupid questions” rule. See Obvious Answers to Simple Questions by isaacs of npm fame.
But the expected return on asking a stupid question is still positive.
No, not with even the slightest semblance of opportunity cost being taken into account.
I’d say there are probably cases where people have gotten hurt by not asking “stupid” questions.
Also, I think we need to dissolve what exactly a stupid question is?
Almost certainly. I am also fairly confident that there is someone who has been hurt because he did look before crossing the road.
But does the negative utility from the situations “find out, get hurt from it” outweight “don’t find out, get hurt from it?”
Isn’t the heuristic More Knowledge ⇒ Better Decisions quite powerful?
Get to the stupid questions after all the sensible questions have been exhausted if, for some reason, the expected utility of the next least stupid question is still positive.
I think we need to find out what we mean by stupid and sensible questions.
Of course one should in any given situation perform the experiments (ask questions) that gives highes expected information (largest number of bits) yield, I.E. ask if it is a vertebrae before you ask if it is a dog. What I think we disagree upon is the nature of a stupid question.
And now, it seems I cannot come up with a good definition of a stupid question as anything I previously would refer to as a “stupid question” can be equally reduced to humility.
Asking stupid questions costs status.
From a slightly different perspective we could say that asking ‘silly’ questions (even good silly questions) costs status while asking stupid questions can potentially gain status in those cases where the people who hear you ask are themselves stupid (or otherwise incentivised to appreciate a given stupid gesture).
And this sort of thing is why some of us think all this ‘status’ talk is harmful.
It doesn’t go away if you stop talking about it.
Personally, I think Robin Hanson tends to treat status as a hammer that turns all issues into nails; it’s certainly possible to overuse a perspective for analyzing social interaction. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t cases where you can only get a meaningful picture of social actions by taking it into consideration.
Nowadays, I can ask a question of the entire WEIRD world without losing any status. There are still some that just aren’t worth wasting my time on. For example: Is the moon actually a moose?
No, but worrying about status can keep you from getting answers to your ‘stupid’ questions.
This is partly why nerds have largely internalized the “there are no stupid questions” rule. See Obvious Answers to Simple Questions by isaacs of npm fame.