To be precise, the claim was that when you can improve an algorithm by randomizing it, you can improve it further by derandomizing it. Assigning probabilities over uranium atoms isn’t even a random task in the first place—you just lawfully calculate some numbers, and state those numbers out loud as your probabilities; not a single randomized step in the cognitive algorithm. If you said “bet everything on a random direction” it would be inferior. This is all stated very clearly in the original page.
In other words, tim_tyler (WRONG: this was Thomas, and as some observed, FAIL) was misstating my previous position (as a quotation no less!) and entirely failing to get the entire point, as usual. But this is not logical rudeness. It is poor reading comprehension.
I regard being quoted as saying something I never said as offensive—it’s injuring others via poor reading comprehension, and can be very simply counteracted by going back to the original text and quoting only things that people actually say. So I will go on to state the following: It’s actually a worthy question why reading comprehension seems to dissociate from ordinary intelligence—why there are people like Phil Goetz who consistently misunderstand almost everything said to them, without being able to realize it, learn the lesson from repeated experience, or do better by trying harder, in spite of their intelligence otherwise seeming not below that of people with much better reading comprehension. I’m leaning toward the notion that they get an initial idea in their heads of what someone else seems to be saying, and then discard all data showing that the person is saying something else—confirmation bias to the point where it destroys the ability to read, though not, alas, write.
I’m leaning toward the notion that they get an initial idea in their heads of what someone else seems to be saying, and then discard all data showing that the person is saying something else—confirmation bias to the point where it destroys the ability to read.
This may be the case for the instances you’re thinking of, but doesn’t seem to cover all instances if poor reading comprehension. I regularly converse with someone whose comprehension difficulties appear to stem from a poor short-term memory, for example.
This seems to be another point in favor of having a less-meta subreddit or forum—we could share resources about that kind of peripheral skill there.
To be precise, the claim was that when you can improve an algorithm by randomizing it, you can improve it further by derandomizing it. Assigning probabilities over uranium atoms isn’t even a random task in the first place—you just lawfully calculate some numbers, and state those numbers out loud as your probabilities; not a single randomized step in the cognitive algorithm. If you said “bet everything on a random direction” it would be inferior. This is all stated very clearly in the original page.
In other words, tim_tyler (WRONG: this was Thomas, and as some observed, FAIL) was misstating my previous position (as a quotation no less!) and entirely failing to get the entire point, as usual. But this is not logical rudeness. It is poor reading comprehension.
I regard being quoted as saying something I never said as offensive—it’s injuring others via poor reading comprehension, and can be very simply counteracted by going back to the original text and quoting only things that people actually say. So I will go on to state the following: It’s actually a worthy question why reading comprehension seems to dissociate from ordinary intelligence—why there are people like Phil Goetz who consistently misunderstand almost everything said to them, without being able to realize it, learn the lesson from repeated experience, or do better by trying harder, in spite of their intelligence otherwise seeming not below that of people with much better reading comprehension. I’m leaning toward the notion that they get an initial idea in their heads of what someone else seems to be saying, and then discard all data showing that the person is saying something else—confirmation bias to the point where it destroys the ability to read, though not, alas, write.
Other people have pointed this out, but they forgot to add:
FAIL
Wow. True.
I suspect a perfect scan would have literally showed that my brain was reading “Thomas” as “Tim_Tyler” every time.
Are timtyler and Thomas the same person?
Of course not.
[Relevant Link]
Yep, I figured that out eventually.
This may be the case for the instances you’re thinking of, but doesn’t seem to cover all instances if poor reading comprehension. I regularly converse with someone whose comprehension difficulties appear to stem from a poor short-term memory, for example.
This seems to be another point in favor of having a less-meta subreddit or forum—we could share resources about that kind of peripheral skill there.