Don’t know if you saw, but I updated the post yesterday because of your (and khafra’s) points.
Also, your caveat is a good reframe of the main mechanism behind the post.
I do still disagree with you somewhat, because I think that people going through a crisis of faith are prone to flailing around and taking naive actions that they would have reconsidered after a week or month of actually thinking through the implications of their new belief. Trying to maximize utility while making a major update is safe for ideal Bayesian reasoners, but it fails badly for actual humans.
In the absence of an external crisis, taking relatively safe actions (and few irreversible actions) is correct in the short term, and the status quo is going to be reasonably safe for most people if you’ve been living it for years. If you can back off from newly-suspected-wrong activities for the time being without doing so irreversibly, then yes that’s better.
I do still disagree with you somewhat, because I think that people going through a crisis of faith are prone to flailing around and taking naive actions that they would have reconsidered after a week or month of actually thinking through the implications of their new belief. Trying to maximize utility while making a major update is safe for ideal Bayesian reasoners, but it fails badly for actual humans.
Ah, yeah I agree with this observation—and it could be good to just assume things add up to normality as a general defense against people rapidly taking naive actions. Scarcity bias is a thing after all and if you get into a mindset where now is the time to act, it’s really hard to prevent yourself from acting irrationally.
I agree with this, but a counterpoint is that it’s very hard for people to change longstanding habits and behaviors at all, and sometimes a major internal update is a good moment to make significant behavior changes because that’s the only time most people can manage major behavioral changes at all.
Don’t know if you saw, but I updated the post yesterday because of your (and khafra’s) points.
Also, your caveat is a good reframe of the main mechanism behind the post.
I do still disagree with you somewhat, because I think that people going through a crisis of faith are prone to flailing around and taking naive actions that they would have reconsidered after a week or month of actually thinking through the implications of their new belief. Trying to maximize utility while making a major update is safe for ideal Bayesian reasoners, but it fails badly for actual humans.
In the absence of an external crisis, taking relatively safe actions (and few irreversible actions) is correct in the short term, and the status quo is going to be reasonably safe for most people if you’ve been living it for years. If you can back off from newly-suspected-wrong activities for the time being without doing so irreversibly, then yes that’s better.
Ah, yeah I agree with this observation—and it could be good to just assume things add up to normality as a general defense against people rapidly taking naive actions. Scarcity bias is a thing after all and if you get into a mindset where now is the time to act, it’s really hard to prevent yourself from acting irrationally.
Huzzah, convergence! I appreciate the points you’ve made.
I agree with this, but a counterpoint is that it’s very hard for people to change longstanding habits and behaviors at all, and sometimes a major internal update is a good moment to make significant behavior changes because that’s the only time most people can manage major behavioral changes at all.