Thanks for making this post. I agree with your remarks, especially
I’ve noticed various friends and some people on this site making just this mistake. It’s as if their love for truth and rational enquiry, which is a great thing in its own right, spills over into a conviction to act in a particular way, which itself is of questionable optimality.
In recent months there have been several posts on LessWrong about the “dark arts”, which have mostly concerned using asymmetric knowledge to manipulate people. I like these posts, and I respect the moral stance implied by their name, but I fear that “dark arts” is becoming applicable to the much broader case of not acting according to the simple rule that decisions are always good when they sound like true beliefs.
Thanks for making this post. I agree with your remarks, especially
I’ve made related posts:
Existential Risk and Public Relations
Reason is not the only means of overcoming bias
Reflections on a Personal Public Relations Failure: A Lesson In Communication.