Relevant background: ialdabaoth has this exact same conversation highly frequently, with people who think he must be missing something obvious, and then spend a much of trying saying “have you tried X” and he says “yes, but Y”, and then “oh, have you tried Z?” and he says “yes, but W”, and then after an hour of back and forth they give up, with neither party having gained anything useful.
(I do not think this particular instance of this conversation is likely to go anywhere useful)
(Quick note: I’ve downvoted my own post to keep it below zero karma, since meta-discussion-about-this-particular-sub-subthread isn’t something I’m interested in encouraging on the front page)
Yes, I know; I’ve seen ialdabaoth around the interwebs before.
Conversely, I have had something very much like this same conversation many times before, and it is my experience that this (i.e., my advice) is something that people—even very smart people—do, in fact, miss, like, all the time.
Or rather, it’s not necessarily that they miss it per se (though surprisingly often, it’s exactly that), it’s just that they don’t do it, for various reasons that boil down to “assorted biases”.
In this particular case (I surmise), and in any case in many similar cases (I know), this is exactly the sort of thing Eliezer talks about in Inadequate Equilibria, where people try a thing, but they don’t try doing more of the thing.
But, of course, ialdabaoth is more than welcome to correct me, and I would certainly be willing to take the conversation private, if desired.
P.S.: Whoever’s downvoting my comments: if you’re doing it because you disagree, fair enough (though I’d like to hear why). Otherwise, take note of the fact that ialdabaoth did start this thread, by asking a question. I answered it.
Relevant background: ialdabaoth has this exact same conversation highly frequently, with people who think he must be missing something obvious, and then spend a much of trying saying “have you tried X” and he says “yes, but Y”, and then “oh, have you tried Z?” and he says “yes, but W”, and then after an hour of back and forth they give up, with neither party having gained anything useful.
(I do not think this particular instance of this conversation is likely to go anywhere useful)
(Quick note: I’ve downvoted my own post to keep it below zero karma, since meta-discussion-about-this-particular-sub-subthread isn’t something I’m interested in encouraging on the front page)
Yes, I know; I’ve seen ialdabaoth around the interwebs before.
Conversely, I have had something very much like this same conversation many times before, and it is my experience that this (i.e., my advice) is something that people—even very smart people—do, in fact, miss, like, all the time.
Or rather, it’s not necessarily that they miss it per se (though surprisingly often, it’s exactly that), it’s just that they don’t do it, for various reasons that boil down to “assorted biases”.
In this particular case (I surmise), and in any case in many similar cases (I know), this is exactly the sort of thing Eliezer talks about in Inadequate Equilibria, where people try a thing, but they don’t try doing more of the thing.
But, of course, ialdabaoth is more than welcome to correct me, and I would certainly be willing to take the conversation private, if desired.
P.S.: Whoever’s downvoting my comments: if you’re doing it because you disagree, fair enough (though I’d like to hear why). Otherwise, take note of the fact that ialdabaoth did start this thread, by asking a question. I answered it.