It seems to me it’s more important to save a larger percent on the $40 items than a much smaller percent on $2500 items since in the long run you’ll buy many more of the first type of items than the second. So it looks like a useful heuristic.
This is a really excellent point, and ties into the recent post about how some alleged fallacies are actually just necessary heuristics … which I can’t seem to find now. I was reading about that on LW, wasn’t I?
It sounds like something one would read on LW, but I don’t recall any particular post on that subject. It’s not a terribly non-obvious point, though; it’s not like evolution is stupid enough to invent fallacies and biases for no reason at all. We wouldn’t have the original heuristics in the first place if they didn’t work often enough to be more useful than detrimental in the ancestral environment.
Hunh. I wonder where that was, then. And yeah, the reasons for it are clear enough, but I think it’s a helpful reminder just the same. Evolution has had a lot more time and evidence to work with than rationalists have; it behooves us to be cautious when denouncing its conclusions.
It’s not as if going back to the store to save $20 on a blender will save you $20 on every $40 purchase. You’d have to do it for each purchase. If it’s worth doing a hundred times, it’s worth doing once.
It seems to me it’s more important to save a larger percent on the $40 items than a much smaller percent on $2500 items since in the long run you’ll buy many more of the first type of items than the second. So it looks like a useful heuristic.
This is a really excellent point, and ties into the recent post about how some alleged fallacies are actually just necessary heuristics … which I can’t seem to find now. I was reading about that on LW, wasn’t I?
Vladimir_M made that point in the comments here.
Yeah, and it’s a good one there too, but not what I was thinking of—I hadn’t seen that post.
It sounds like something one would read on LW, but I don’t recall any particular post on that subject. It’s not a terribly non-obvious point, though; it’s not like evolution is stupid enough to invent fallacies and biases for no reason at all. We wouldn’t have the original heuristics in the first place if they didn’t work often enough to be more useful than detrimental in the ancestral environment.
Hunh. I wonder where that was, then. And yeah, the reasons for it are clear enough, but I think it’s a helpful reminder just the same. Evolution has had a lot more time and evidence to work with than rationalists have; it behooves us to be cautious when denouncing its conclusions.
It’s not as if going back to the store to save $20 on a blender will save you $20 on every $40 purchase. You’d have to do it for each purchase. If it’s worth doing a hundred times, it’s worth doing once.