Significant efforts or careful planning are pointless if success and failure in life will be dominated by unpredictable factors that swoop in from “out there” to manipulate outcomes in unforeseen ways. If your ship’s destination will be determined by random winds that can tear your sails to shreds or speed you swiftly to a surprise destination, why bother making a map? The choice is pretty much just whether to get in the ship at all, and it’s probably a bad idea unless your current conditions are abysmal.
I didn’t grok this much. Are you saying that rationality might not help people who will have an external locus of control regardless, or that you used to think this, or something different?
I’m saying that if someone really doesn’t have the ability to influence outcomes of personal interest, then it might really be senseless to make plans or worry about acting coherently. Someone might have an internal locus of control with respect to a slot machine, believing that their timing and bar-pulling-technique actually matter, and try to do statistically significant studies on which technique is best.
Maybe the person would discover a broken slot machine and discover how to game it? Its possible. But mostly they would just be crazy.
I didn’t grok this much. Are you saying that rationality might not help people who will have an external locus of control regardless, or that you used to think this, or something different?
I’m saying that if someone really doesn’t have the ability to influence outcomes of personal interest, then it might really be senseless to make plans or worry about acting coherently. Someone might have an internal locus of control with respect to a slot machine, believing that their timing and bar-pulling-technique actually matter, and try to do statistically significant studies on which technique is best.
Maybe the person would discover a broken slot machine and discover how to game it? Its possible. But mostly they would just be crazy.