I simply don’t understand the logic of the post. Deciding what things you need to do is to improve your life is easy, the hard thing is to commit to it and do them. You still have plenty of daydreaming time left especially before you fall asleep. Investing dreaming and fantasizing into them does not make your decisions any better: usually they are simple decisions, the hard thing is just executing them. Spending thousands of hours mulling over why I need to work out more or how to convince my boss to implement that new thing learning which makes me better at the job market does not make it any more efficient.
Life does not consist of chess-mastermind decisions. It is the plain simple decisions to buckle down and work on things that in your life situation are usually blindingly obvious.
This means you don’t lose anything if you choose to fantasize about anything you feel like. Instant wealth? That is actually mathemathically possible. I also fantasize about completely impossible things like finding adventure on the Middle-Earth. Why exactly not? I don’t feel the need my life needs more planning input: it only needs more dedication input.
I think Eliezer could have made a better argument if he said if you want to fantasize about something near impossible, then don’t choose something as mundane as being a rich playboy in the 21st century—fantasize about being Galactic Emperor or Jedi or a Gondorian knight fighting Mordor. Something grand, something that may make you write a good novel one day.
I believe we live in a dull world and it is correct to not occupy our minds 100% of the time with it but also long for escape. Dull compared to not other possible or previous worlds, but to ones we can imagine. There is a huge movie industry capitalizing on it.
Winning the lottery is a meta-fantasy, it is about having the security and time and funds to live in a fantasy simulation, like doing Society for Creative Anachronism stuff 7⁄24. If we were rich, our life would be an RPG. We had weekend house that would be like a 19th century hunters camp. Another one had a large field where I would set up medieval tents and invite re-enactors to do some jousting and medieval swordfighting there.
The lottery fantasy is a meta-fantasy about throwing funds and time on your fantasy.
The problem isn’t fantasizing about winning the lottery. The problem is paying to fantasize about winning the lottery. The expected value of the ticket is negative, but you can fantasize for free.
EDIT: But even then, there are more valuable uses of your time than fantasizing about something that will never happen.
This means you don’t lose anything if you choose to fantasize about anything you feel like.
You do lose something; the opportunity cost of spending time fantasizing. If you get enough out of fantasizing to offset that cost, then by all means do it, but for most people there are other valuable things they could do that are just as fun, like fantasizing as a means of fleshing out book ideas.
Why I buy lottery tickets (re: http://lesswrong.com/lw/hl/lotteries_a_waste_of_hope/ )
I simply don’t understand the logic of the post. Deciding what things you need to do is to improve your life is easy, the hard thing is to commit to it and do them. You still have plenty of daydreaming time left especially before you fall asleep. Investing dreaming and fantasizing into them does not make your decisions any better: usually they are simple decisions, the hard thing is just executing them. Spending thousands of hours mulling over why I need to work out more or how to convince my boss to implement that new thing learning which makes me better at the job market does not make it any more efficient.
Life does not consist of chess-mastermind decisions. It is the plain simple decisions to buckle down and work on things that in your life situation are usually blindingly obvious.
This means you don’t lose anything if you choose to fantasize about anything you feel like. Instant wealth? That is actually mathemathically possible. I also fantasize about completely impossible things like finding adventure on the Middle-Earth. Why exactly not? I don’t feel the need my life needs more planning input: it only needs more dedication input.
I think Eliezer could have made a better argument if he said if you want to fantasize about something near impossible, then don’t choose something as mundane as being a rich playboy in the 21st century—fantasize about being Galactic Emperor or Jedi or a Gondorian knight fighting Mordor. Something grand, something that may make you write a good novel one day.
I believe we live in a dull world and it is correct to not occupy our minds 100% of the time with it but also long for escape. Dull compared to not other possible or previous worlds, but to ones we can imagine. There is a huge movie industry capitalizing on it.
Winning the lottery is a meta-fantasy, it is about having the security and time and funds to live in a fantasy simulation, like doing Society for Creative Anachronism stuff 7⁄24. If we were rich, our life would be an RPG. We had weekend house that would be like a 19th century hunters camp. Another one had a large field where I would set up medieval tents and invite re-enactors to do some jousting and medieval swordfighting there.
The lottery fantasy is a meta-fantasy about throwing funds and time on your fantasy.
The problem isn’t fantasizing about winning the lottery. The problem is paying to fantasize about winning the lottery. The expected value of the ticket is negative, but you can fantasize for free.
EDIT: But even then, there are more valuable uses of your time than fantasizing about something that will never happen.
You do lose something; the opportunity cost of spending time fantasizing. If you get enough out of fantasizing to offset that cost, then by all means do it, but for most people there are other valuable things they could do that are just as fun, like fantasizing as a means of fleshing out book ideas.