Perhaps you and your opponent were simply optimizing for different goals ? For example, it’s possible that your goal was “defeat the opponent as quickly as possible”, whereas his was “defeat the opponent while looking as good as possible (in order to derive maximum enjoyment from the task)” or “defeat the opponent whose challenge level falls within some optimal range, handicapping self if needed (in order to derive maximum enjoyment from the task)” . Your opponent may or may not have been aware of his true goals at the time.
My point is, it’s kind of tricky to declare an action “worse than worthless” without having very detailed information about all of the actors involved.
My point is, it’s kind of tricky to declare an action “worse than worthless” without having very detailed information about all of the actors involved.
A fair point. Note, though, that my opponent said that his aesthetic preference was “useless but not actually harmful.” This post is intended to show how such preferences can, in fact, be harmful rather than merely useless.
It is certainly possible that someone would care more about aesthetics than about winning and be willing to accept that tradeoff—but in this case, the fact that it even was a tradeoff went unrecognized.
Perhaps you and your opponent were simply optimizing for different goals ? For example, it’s possible that your goal was “defeat the opponent as quickly as possible”, whereas his was “defeat the opponent while looking as good as possible (in order to derive maximum enjoyment from the task)” or “defeat the opponent whose challenge level falls within some optimal range, handicapping self if needed (in order to derive maximum enjoyment from the task)” . Your opponent may or may not have been aware of his true goals at the time.
My point is, it’s kind of tricky to declare an action “worse than worthless” without having very detailed information about all of the actors involved.
A fair point. Note, though, that my opponent said that his aesthetic preference was “useless but not actually harmful.” This post is intended to show how such preferences can, in fact, be harmful rather than merely useless.
It is certainly possible that someone would care more about aesthetics than about winning and be willing to accept that tradeoff—but in this case, the fact that it even was a tradeoff went unrecognized.