What I know about Val does not make me update downwards particularly strongly about the tendency to make up post-hoc stories. Very few people strike me as being particularly more trustworthy in that direction, which in itself might be a failure of outside-viewing too hard, but that’s definitely my considered epistemic state, taking into account what I know about Val.
(May it be said that my general distrust of people having developed real rationality skills has been a source of disagreement with many, and some source of personal tension between me and others, including me and Val in the past.)
[Meta note to onlookers who seem to have maybe downvoted Qiaochu’s comment]
I think a comment like the one Qiaochu wrote would indeed be out of place and weird for people who didn’t have a personal relationship with me, but given the kind of relationship me and Qiaochu do have, I found the comment to be well-placed and helpful, and expect that the general algorithm of highlighting these potential faults in my thinking patterns will be very useful for me in the long-run, if executed by Qiaochu.
What I know about Val does not make me update downwards particularly strongly about the tendency to make up post-hoc stories. Very few people strike me as being particularly more trustworthy in that direction, which in itself might be a failure of outside-viewing too hard, but that’s definitely my considered epistemic state, taking into account what I know about Val.
(May it be said that my general distrust of people having developed real rationality skills has been a source of disagreement with many, and some source of personal tension between me and others, including me and Val in the past.)
[Meta note to onlookers who seem to have maybe downvoted Qiaochu’s comment]
I think a comment like the one Qiaochu wrote would indeed be out of place and weird for people who didn’t have a personal relationship with me, but given the kind of relationship me and Qiaochu do have, I found the comment to be well-placed and helpful, and expect that the general algorithm of highlighting these potential faults in my thinking patterns will be very useful for me in the long-run, if executed by Qiaochu.
Thanks Oli, I appreciate your candor and your support.