I think the story might be useful for someone who is genuinely confused about what they believe / value. If you aren’t confuse about those things, then I agree the story is not that useful. Perhaps another label would be intuition pump.
Like many texts-for-clarifying-thought, the failure mode of reading them is using them as a mirror for one’s own beliefs. The fact that one might have a better understanding of one’s preferences after reading EY’s text is not strong proof that the text argues for one’s preferences. By illusion-of-transparency, the piece has become highly valued even though there is no consensus as to what it means.
Given the prevalence of that failure mode, I’m not sure that this story has positive expected value across the population of likely readers.
I think the story might be useful for someone who is genuinely confused about what they believe / value. If you aren’t confuse about those things, then I agree the story is not that useful. Perhaps another label would be intuition pump.
Like many texts-for-clarifying-thought, the failure mode of reading them is using them as a mirror for one’s own beliefs. The fact that one might have a better understanding of one’s preferences after reading EY’s text is not strong proof that the text argues for one’s preferences. By illusion-of-transparency, the piece has become highly valued even though there is no consensus as to what it means.
Given the prevalence of that failure mode, I’m not sure that this story has positive expected value across the population of likely readers.