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I see why you would interpret the BoI quote in that way, but in the context of the whole philosophy your interpretation is implausible.

How can we tell whether my interpretation is implausible or whether Deutsch really does contradict himself?

I don’t think it’s enough to point out that the quote that (I think) contradicts his philosophy would, if I am right, indeed contradict his philosophy. We’re bound to find contradictions eventually. So I think we’d need some independent reasoning.

Btw, the discussion about HTV has largely moved to #3780 and its children. I’m going to summarize your criticisms there, and I suggest continuing there.

It seems that you've taken the idea of hard to vary as saying that the process of choosing between competing theories is just about measuring how much of this trait they have. One clearly wouldn’t get better explanations from doing that, as it would just be a mechanical way of judging theories.

Yes, but as I understood Deutsch, this process of choosing happens after one has conjectured and criticized a bunch of explanations. I don’t think he suggests that the application of the HTV criterion makes theories better, only that we should use it to choose between explanations after they have been guessed and improved.

So the process of choosing between already existing explanations really is “just about measuring how much of this trait they have.”

Veritula implements unanimous consent …

This notion also maps onto Ayn Rand’s idea that “there are no conflicts of interests among rational men.” (From The Virtue of Selfishness.)

There’s a reason rationality means lack of conflict.

Veritula implements unanimous consent …

I just realized that this notion also maps onto Ayn Rand’s idea that “there are no conflicts of interests among rational men.” (From The Virtue of Selfishness.)

There’s a reason rationality means lack of conflict.

@tyler-mills, both bounties are over.

At the time of writing, the idea saying to keep your job (#3638) has 4 pending criticisms.

The idea saying to quit and do research (#3639) has no pending criticisms.

So at this moment, the rational choice would be to quit your job. Hope this brings you some clarity.

Have you thought about quiet quitting?

Could you also come up with the reasons you dislike your job? Is it because of co-workers, managers or the work you actually do? In either case, the calculation in the calculated risk of quitting your job might be mentally checking out from it, but reaping the good thing about it, which is the financial stability.

Veritula implements unanimous consent …

I just realized that this notion also maps onto Ayn Rand’s idea that “there are no conflicts of interests among rational men.” (From The Virtue of Selfishness.)

There’s a reason rationality means lack of conflict.

It’s contrived beyond the specific example of the guitarist from the dark ages. You’ll never run out of examples that could be challenging for me to answer. I can’t give you all the solutions ahead of time. That doesn’t mean problems aren’t soluble.

All I can tell you is that you’re a problem-solving engine, so it’s possible possible for you to enjoy life 100% of the time, and that this is worth striving for.

It’s always possible to make a living doing something you enjoy. But if you’re looking for a guarantee, you will be disappointed.

The guitarist line above is of course just a throwaway example. The core claims here seem very general to me. Is your stance that a person can always make a living doing something they enjoy? People can create all possible jobs, but this says nothing about human lifetimes, economics, etc. The first people couldn’t have had much fun, I wouldn’t think. Please explain.

Been trying a slight modification of bounties in prod for a couple of weeks or so. Working well so far.

@dirk-meulenbelt recently offered to chip in for a bounty I want to run. That got me thinking: multiple people should be able to fund bounties.

When a revision addresses a criticism, you don’t counter-criticize the criticism, you deselect it at the bottom of the revision form.

To be sure, this isn’t a big deal. But try revising #3908 again, just to practice.

Oh dear, thanks. Corrected.

There exist people whose passions exclude all available paying jobs, unless this is not physically possible. Aspiring guitarists in dark ages.

Tyler says:

No preview necessarily, or the first sentence upon mouse-over could work. I’m imagining a structural view independent of the main view. (Though still suggest looking at columns for each idea in the main view).

How would you preview text in nodes?

@tyler-mills says:

… I’m finding the threads a bit cumbersome to keep track of. Would love an option to have each top level idea in a column, and horizontal scrolling would be fine with me if there are many of them.

@tyler-mills says:

I keep coming back to a graph-based presentation. Every comment a node, edges red if ending in criticisms. I crave a way to see structurally how many red criticism threads and grey comment threads are stemming from a given idea. The red ones could be bold and bright if they lead to an uncriticized idea, else dim and thin. Then we can see at a glance which ideas are sources of more criticisms, and/or hold greater opportunities for further criticism — can see which ideas are “deeper” niches, one might say (..!). Have greater evolvability…

Basically not doable for the user with the current bubble+hashtag method. But again it could just be an optional view. I think I mentioned I find that Kialo does a cool job with their sun dial diagrams (which are optional).

You need to mark your submission as a criticism if you want it to be eligible for a payout from the bounty.

‘How Do Bounties Work?’

You need to mark your submission as a criticism if you want it to be eligible for a payout from the bounty.

‘How Do Bounties Work?’

quite

quiet

Tyler explained what he dislikes about his job in the ‘About’ section of the discussion, which is quoted in the bounty terms:

Many of the tasks I am assigned seem eminently automatable, and performing them is excruciating for me (though I recognize my good fortune overall). Even when there are micro-problems which require creativity to solve, I still find the process painful, given that they are other people's problems rather than my own. It is the same pain of school: creativity forced to work toward answers to questions not asked.

Have you thought about quite quitting?

Could you also come up with the reasons you dislike your job? Is it because of co-workers, managers or the work you actually do? In either case, the calculation in the calculated risk of quitting your job might be mentally checking out from it, but reaping the good thing about it, which is the financial stability.

But what is the import of the story to the present debate?

‘The Simplest Thing in the World’ has themes about fear and safety vs self-actualization. For example:

What’s the quality that all the people you know have got, the outstanding quality in all of them? Their motive power? Fear. Not fear of anyone in particular, just fear. Just a great, blind force without object. Malicious fear. The kind that makes them want to see you suffer. Because they know that they, too, will have to suffer and it makes it easier, to know that you do also. The kind that makes them want to see you being small and funny and smutty. Small people are safe. It’s not really fear, it’s more than that. Like Mr. Crawford, for instance, who’s a lawyer and who’s glad when a client of his loses a suit. He’s glad, even though he loses money on it; even though it hurts his reputation. He’s glad, and he doesn’t even know that he’s glad. God, what a story there is in Mr. Crawford! If you could put him down on paper as he is, and explain just why he is like that, and . . .

… people go their whole lives resisting their passions, and are secure.

Physically maybe. I can’t look into those people’s minds but I suspect they don’t ever really feel psychologically secure. It takes a certain kind of mind to have physical security, rather than fulfillment, as one’s main concern for one’s whole life. https://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/self-esteem.html

It’s essentially living like an animal.