Something something Law Thinking vs Toolbox Thinking. My read on Said’s post here is to help people think about Lawful thinking, noticing that there *is* some actual optimal rule you can follow (even if it’s computationally intractable and you don’t know what the rule is)
I don’t think I can pass an ITT for strict lawful thinking. I’m absolutely supportive of discovering and creating summaries of future decision intent, and of being somewhat rigorous in doing so. But I can’t ignore the fundamental complexity of the real world, and the fact that these are ONLY extremely compressed expressions of a set of beliefs.
I may be stuck in toolbox thinking, though I’ll definitely use lawful models as some of my tools. Or I may simply not be smart enough to identify and make legible the incredible variety of decisions I face over time. Rules (and habits, which are basically unconscious rules) make this tolerable, as I can spend very little energy on most of them. But there are daily choices where I see conflicts among rules and have to choose among rules that might apply, and also among the meta-rules to pick the right rule, and meta-meta-rules to weigh across different meta-rules, etc.
I kind of wonder if we have actual different felt experiences on the topic. I can only think of stated rules as porous and directional, and I feel good when I violate one for a good purpose. Take that, over-simplistic, condescending non-agent worldview! I also feel good when I recognize a new context in which a rule applies and find that the rule is stronger than I previously thought, so I’m not anti-rule in general, just that I think they’re a convenience rather than a truth.
I’ve talked with other people who are horrified when they find a case that an accepted rule interferes with doing the best thing, and work hard to reconcile the situation with patches or meta-rules (and get angry when I use the word “rationalization”). They seem to feel near-physical pain from violating (some) rules without a lot of justification. I have sometimes been guilty of thinking they just need to find the right Manic Pixie Dream Person to break them out of the bonds of propriety, but I also wonder if there’s something deeper in the way the world actually feels day-to-day to them and to me.
Something something Law Thinking vs Toolbox Thinking. My read on Said’s post here is to help people think about Lawful thinking, noticing that there *is* some actual optimal rule you can follow (even if it’s computationally intractable and you don’t know what the rule is)
I don’t think I can pass an ITT for strict lawful thinking. I’m absolutely supportive of discovering and creating summaries of future decision intent, and of being somewhat rigorous in doing so. But I can’t ignore the fundamental complexity of the real world, and the fact that these are ONLY extremely compressed expressions of a set of beliefs.
I may be stuck in toolbox thinking, though I’ll definitely use lawful models as some of my tools. Or I may simply not be smart enough to identify and make legible the incredible variety of decisions I face over time. Rules (and habits, which are basically unconscious rules) make this tolerable, as I can spend very little energy on most of them. But there are daily choices where I see conflicts among rules and have to choose among rules that might apply, and also among the meta-rules to pick the right rule, and meta-meta-rules to weigh across different meta-rules, etc.
I kind of wonder if we have actual different felt experiences on the topic. I can only think of stated rules as porous and directional, and I feel good when I violate one for a good purpose. Take that, over-simplistic, condescending non-agent worldview! I also feel good when I recognize a new context in which a rule applies and find that the rule is stronger than I previously thought, so I’m not anti-rule in general, just that I think they’re a convenience rather than a truth.
I’ve talked with other people who are horrified when they find a case that an accepted rule interferes with doing the best thing, and work hard to reconcile the situation with patches or meta-rules (and get angry when I use the word “rationalization”). They seem to feel near-physical pain from violating (some) rules without a lot of justification. I have sometimes been guilty of thinking they just need to find the right Manic Pixie Dream Person to break them out of the bonds of propriety, but I also wonder if there’s something deeper in the way the world actually feels day-to-day to them and to me.
The comment I wrote just now is relevant.