Nicely put for an introduction, but of course things are in reality not as clear-cut, “rationality” changing the direction and “desire” the magnitude.
Rationality can make you realize some contradictions between your desires, and force you to change them. It can also make you realize that what you truly desire isn’t what you thought you desired. Or it can make you desire whole new things, that you didn’t believe to be possible initially.
Desire will affect the magnitude because it’ll affect how much effort you put in your endeavor. With things like akrasia and procastination around, if you don’t have strong desire to do something, you are much likely to do it, especially if there is an initial cost. That’s what Eliezer calls “something to protect”.
Of course those two are mostly positive feedback between rationality and desire, but there also be can negative feedbacks between the two, usually due to human imperfections.
Nicely put for an introduction, but of course things are in reality not as clear-cut, “rationality” changing the direction and “desire” the magnitude.
Rationality can make you realize some contradictions between your desires, and force you to change them. It can also make you realize that what you truly desire isn’t what you thought you desired. Or it can make you desire whole new things, that you didn’t believe to be possible initially.
Desire will affect the magnitude because it’ll affect how much effort you put in your endeavor. With things like akrasia and procastination around, if you don’t have strong desire to do something, you are much likely to do it, especially if there is an initial cost. That’s what Eliezer calls “something to protect”.
Of course those two are mostly positive feedback between rationality and desire, but there also be can negative feedbacks between the two, usually due to human imperfections.