[1] and it works on people other than me, e.g. the man in the coffee shop at 5pm yesterday she asked to get her a babycino (frothy milk with chocolate on top). He switched the machine back on after he’d switched it off and cleaned it just because the cute little girl asked for a 50p drink.
Good customer service? Regardless of the ‘cuteness’ of the customer, I think most employees wouldn’t say ‘no’ unless the shop had already closed.
I wouldn’t purport to be able to write a full post of sufficient quality!
But I can say the obvious is true: I become aware just what a soft touch I am, even when I realise it’s a bad idea; I have to keep in mind what I’m supposed to be doing and what’s a good idea and why I’m not doing the thing that’s a good idea; I occasionally come to awareness carrying a Hello Kitty balloon and a fairy princess sticker book and a drink and an ice cream and then doing a stack trace to work out precisely how I got there, while the small child is demanding more things.
Keep the sensible thing firmly in mind as much as possible, and don’t put up with tantrums. The child wants candy all the time, but your job is actually raising her properly. Children are highly evolved manipulators, for really obvious reasons. Mine appears particularly charming, based on how others appear similarly susceptible. It helps if I channel her mother, who is not a soft touch at all because this is her third rather than her first. Stuff like that.
I thought that was the definition of a parent’s job, and the arguments come in the details. Perhaps that’s dodging the question. I’d think it reasonably uncontroversial to say that the answer wouldn’t involve giving in to the child’s every demand for physical or mental candy, though.
I haven’t read the Caplan book, but I can say that having a child is way cool. Watching a small intelligence grow.
Seems any such post would be hampered by the factor that makes Poker a both a good test of rationality, and a dubious way to develop rationality: Large variance in outcomes despite identical efforts, and (partly because of that) delayed and noisy feedback on the quality of your efforts.
Good customer service? Regardless of the ‘cuteness’ of the customer, I think most employees wouldn’t say ‘no’ unless the shop had already closed.
It had just closed. But they know her, so yes. And she’d just burst into tears.
Having a daughter is a serious live-fire exercise in how to think rationally despite your cognitive biases.
I would be deeply interested in a post on that subject.
I wouldn’t purport to be able to write a full post of sufficient quality!
But I can say the obvious is true: I become aware just what a soft touch I am, even when I realise it’s a bad idea; I have to keep in mind what I’m supposed to be doing and what’s a good idea and why I’m not doing the thing that’s a good idea; I occasionally come to awareness carrying a Hello Kitty balloon and a fairy princess sticker book and a drink and an ice cream and then doing a stack trace to work out precisely how I got there, while the small child is demanding more things.
Keep the sensible thing firmly in mind as much as possible, and don’t put up with tantrums. The child wants candy all the time, but your job is actually raising her properly. Children are highly evolved manipulators, for really obvious reasons. Mine appears particularly charming, based on how others appear similarly susceptible. It helps if I channel her mother, who is not a soft touch at all because this is her third rather than her first. Stuff like that.
It’s not at all obvious what this means. Have you read Bryan Caplan’s book? Or, at least, a selection of his blog posts?
I thought that was the definition of a parent’s job, and the arguments come in the details. Perhaps that’s dodging the question. I’d think it reasonably uncontroversial to say that the answer wouldn’t involve giving in to the child’s every demand for physical or mental candy, though.
I haven’t read the Caplan book, but I can say that having a child is way cool. Watching a small intelligence grow.
Seems any such post would be hampered by the factor that makes Poker a both a good test of rationality, and a dubious way to develop rationality: Large variance in outcomes despite identical efforts, and (partly because of that) delayed and noisy feedback on the quality of your efforts.
As would I.
Thirded, especially because I have daughter on the way!