It is not a word game, rather a very firm admonishment to make use of a very handy heuristic. Humans love claiming they are the underdog. Winners write history. Yet the truth is underdogs don’t tend to win. Of people claiming to have been wonderdogs who have won, I’d argue it prudent to expect most of them to be overdogs either consciously deceiving or rationalizing a self-flattering image.
A very handy heuristic that doesn’t look very handy at all in this context. And seems completely irrelevant in many other contexts.
A very handy heuristic that doesn’t look very handy at all in this context. And seems completely irrelevant in many other contexts.
It obviously can’t be applied to everything, but it is great for deflating self-flattering underdog stories we see around us all the time. Be it politics or personal life.
Rock-Paper-Scissors. Who’s the underdog?
You kind of miss the point. If you can’t apply underdog and overdog narratives which humans love constructing to an example the heuristic has nothing left to do.
You kind of miss the point. If you can’t apply underdog and over dog narratives which humans love constructing to an example the heuristics has nothing left to do.
Doh, that wasn’t my intention. I’m taking up the habit of providing simple examples for claims like “seems completely irrelevant in many other contexts”. Edited a bit for clarity.
Re deflating flattery, it does seem great for that, but I think it’s screened off by enough other useful things (like thinking of something in Game Theory terms) that I hope most LWers have already learned at least one of them.
A very handy heuristic that doesn’t look very handy at all in this context. And seems completely irrelevant in many other contexts.
e.g. “Rock-Paper-Scissors. Who’s the underdog?”
It obviously can’t be applied to everything, but it is great for deflating self-flattering underdog stories we see around us all the time. Be it politics or personal life.
You kind of miss the point. If you can’t apply underdog and overdog narratives which humans love constructing to an example the heuristic has nothing left to do.
Doh, that wasn’t my intention. I’m taking up the habit of providing simple examples for claims like “seems completely irrelevant in many other contexts”. Edited a bit for clarity.
Re deflating flattery, it does seem great for that, but I think it’s screened off by enough other useful things (like thinking of something in Game Theory terms) that I hope most LWers have already learned at least one of them.