based on the series of essays by eliezer yudkowsky
the lens that sees its own flaws
this essay is rather short, but covers metacognition
in short, it’s important that you recognize your biases (the flaws of your lens) so that you can correct for them in your thinking.
important quotes
Quote
A mouse lives in a mental world that includes cats, holes, cheese and mousetraps—but not mouse brains. Their camera does not take pictures of its own lens. But we, as humans, can look at a seemingly bizarre image, and realize that part of what we’re seeing is the lens itself.
what do we mean by “rationality”
epistemic rationality is the pursuit of an accurate understanding of the world around you
instrumental rationality is about changing the world around you to match what it should be
so understand the world, and change it to match what you want it to be
important quotes
Quote
Beliefs that conform to a coherent probability distribution, and decisions that maximize the probabilistic expectation of a coherent utility function, are called “Bayesian.”
Quote
If you believe that the placebo works, it works. You’re right in believing it works. If you don’t believe that the placebo works, it doesn’t work. You’re right believing it doesn’t work.
– MP