This is rather unnerving. I shamefully admit that the idea that I might accidentally do harm is something I hadn’t seriously considered. People come to me for advice all the time and I always qualify it by saying things like “Here is what I would do, but every situation is different” and “consider that there is probably a lot more to be said on this topic” but it never occurred to me that I could accidentally do serious harm to someone by offering a little advice.
Between this and the inferential difference, is there much hope at all for trying to educate and help people?
If you constrain yourself to actions that can’t cause harm, even serious harm, you become noticeably less effective.
If your goal is to leave people on average better off, more educated, etc., then yes, there’s plenty of reason for hope. People do this all the time. It involves playing the odds so as to maximize the expected value of what you do.
If your goal is to act effectively while also never being accountable for doing harm, there may not be reason for hope.
This is rather unnerving. I shamefully admit that the idea that I might accidentally do harm is something I hadn’t seriously considered. People come to me for advice all the time and I always qualify it by saying things like “Here is what I would do, but every situation is different” and “consider that there is probably a lot more to be said on this topic” but it never occurred to me that I could accidentally do serious harm to someone by offering a little advice.
Between this and the inferential difference, is there much hope at all for trying to educate and help people?
If you constrain yourself to actions that can’t cause harm, even serious harm, you become noticeably less effective.
If your goal is to leave people on average better off, more educated, etc., then yes, there’s plenty of reason for hope. People do this all the time. It involves playing the odds so as to maximize the expected value of what you do.
If your goal is to act effectively while also never being accountable for doing harm, there may not be reason for hope.