(Not particularly related to the post, a technical quibble.)
Past beliefs/priorities/moral judgments are not the same thing as preferences of a past self. A past self can be easily mistaken with respect to its own preferences, so even closely following past self’s preferences benefits from revising its conclusions. Cached thoughts pose a problem because they don’t take new arguments and evidence into account, because they constitute a fixed understanding of a goal, not because they represent a fixed goal.
Agreed.
I’d still like to note that on a practical level, a post like this is useful because it increases the probability that people will make the distinction you just drew, when reflecting about “Why did I think differently about cached thoughts being good when reading the original post, and this one?”
It would have been more useful it if contained your comment though.
(Not particularly related to the post, a technical quibble.)
Past beliefs/priorities/moral judgments are not the same thing as preferences of a past self. A past self can be easily mistaken with respect to its own preferences, so even closely following past self’s preferences benefits from revising its conclusions. Cached thoughts pose a problem because they don’t take new arguments and evidence into account, because they constitute a fixed understanding of a goal, not because they represent a fixed goal.
Agreed. I’d still like to note that on a practical level, a post like this is useful because it increases the probability that people will make the distinction you just drew, when reflecting about “Why did I think differently about cached thoughts being good when reading the original post, and this one?” It would have been more useful it if contained your comment though.