RSS

Bucket Errors

TagLast edit: Aug 17, 2021, 1:25 AM by ozziegooen

A Bucket Error is when multiple different concepts or variables are incorrectly lumped together in one’s mind as a single concept/​variable, potentially leading to distortions of one’s thinking. Bucket Errors are related to Fallacies of Compression.

The term, Bucket Error, was introduced in “Flinching away from truth” is often about *protecting* the epistemology where an example is given of a child who refuses to believe that they made a spelling mistake. The child is unwilling to believe this fact because they believe having made a spelling mistake is incompatible with becoming a writer which is their dream. “Becoming a writer” and “never making spelling mistakes” are lumped in the same bucket despite in fact being separate variables.

Bucket Errors are similar to the concepts of equivocation, identification in Buddhism, or fusion/​defusion in modern psychotherapy. See: Fusion and Equivocation in Korzybski’s General Semantics.

Related Pages: Compartmentalization, Distinctions

“Flinch­ing away from truth” is of­ten about *pro­tect­ing* the epistemology

AnnaSalamonDec 20, 2016, 6:39 PM
233 points
58 comments7 min readLW link

Fal­la­cies of Compression

Eliezer YudkowskyFeb 17, 2008, 6:51 PM
100 points
27 comments4 min readLW link

In­ten­tional Bucket Errors

Scott GarrabrantAug 22, 2019, 8:02 PM
55 points
6 comments3 min readLW link

Ro­mance, mi­s­un­der­stand­ing, so­cial stances, and the hu­man LLM

Kaj_SotalaApr 27, 2023, 12:59 PM
74 points
32 comments16 min readLW link

Paper: Su­per­po­si­tion, Me­moriza­tion, and Dou­ble Des­cent (An­thropic)

LawrenceCJan 5, 2023, 5:54 PM
53 points
11 comments1 min readLW link
(transformer-circuits.pub)

Your Pri­ori­ti­za­tion is Underspecified

romeostevensitJul 10, 2020, 8:48 PM
85 points
13 comments5 min readLW link

Fu­sion and Equiv­o­ca­tion in Korzyb­ski’s Gen­eral Semantics

abramdemskiDec 21, 2020, 5:44 AM
66 points
14 comments3 min readLW link

Buck­ets and memetic im­mune disorders

Tyrrell_McAllisterJan 3, 2017, 11:51 PM
23 points
2 comments1 min readLW link

[In­terim re­search re­port] Tak­ing fea­tures out of su­per­po­si­tion with sparse autoencoders

Dec 13, 2022, 3:41 PM
149 points
23 comments22 min readLW link2 reviews

Defend­ing points you don’t care about

HazardJun 19, 2019, 8:40 PM
41 points
6 comments4 min readLW link

Buck­ets & Bayes

Duncan Sabien (Deactivated)Dec 20, 2021, 5:54 AM
34 points
0 comments18 min readLW link

Bucket Errors

CFAR!DuncanJul 29, 2022, 6:50 PM
42 points
7 comments11 min readLW link

CFAR Par­ti­ci­pant Hand­book now available to all

Duncan Sabien (Deactivated)Jan 3, 2020, 3:43 PM
253 points
40 comments1 min readLW link2 reviews

Emo­tions are not beliefs

Chris_LeongAug 7, 2019, 6:27 AM
25 points
2 comments2 min readLW link
No comments.