There is an exploration vs. exploitation tradeoff here that this misses, though. Exploration here is the act of improving our understanding of the world, and exploitation is utilising that understanding to do what you actually want, like being happy and stuff. Also, this exploration can be very costly (in terms of willpower) for some people, but others actually enjoy this exploration process.
Exploring and exploiting are more interdependent than toy models like the n-armed bandit allow for. The time to eat your brain, like Dennett’s sea squirt, is when you are sure that your world will never change again, i.e. never, especially in the accelerated times we are living through. Always be exploring; exploiting furnishes the resources to explore more.
There is an exploration vs. exploitation tradeoff here that this misses, though. Exploration here is the act of improving our understanding of the world, and exploitation is utilising that understanding to do what you actually want, like being happy and stuff. Also, this exploration can be very costly (in terms of willpower) for some people, but others actually enjoy this exploration process.
Exploring and exploiting are more interdependent than toy models like the n-armed bandit allow for. The time to eat your brain, like Dennett’s sea squirt, is when you are sure that your world will never change again, i.e. never, especially in the accelerated times we are living through. Always be exploring; exploiting furnishes the resources to explore more.
They don’t have to be one or the other for there to be a tradeoff!