The trouble is that even proper beliefs can be inadequately connected to other proper beliefs inside the human mind.
Proper beliefs can be too independent; if you have a belief network A → B and the probabilities of ‘B given A’ and ‘B given not-A’ are similar, A doesn’t have much value when you care about B. It doesn’t change your belief much, because it isn’t connected very much.
But my guess is most human brains have “A → B” and don’t have “B given A” and “B given not A”. So they don’t check the difference, so they don’t see A isn’t connected much to B.
So the general skill is noticing when B doesn’t depend much on A.
I’m not sure what the “making sure your beliefs are actually connected in the first place” skill looks like when broken down to the 5-second level.
Find a belief connection.
Flip the truth value of A and see if B changes much.
If it doesn’t, delete the connection.
If it does, remember the connection.
“Deleting the connection” and “remembering the connection” using our human brains are other 5-second level skills.
Proper beliefs can be too independent; if you have a belief network A → B and the probabilities of ‘B given A’ and ‘B given not-A’ are similar, A doesn’t have much value when you care about B. It doesn’t change your belief much, because it isn’t connected very much.
But my guess is most human brains have “A → B” and don’t have “B given A” and “B given not A”. So they don’t check the difference, so they don’t see A isn’t connected much to B.
So the general skill is noticing when B doesn’t depend much on A.
Find a belief connection.
Flip the truth value of A and see if B changes much.
If it doesn’t, delete the connection.
If it does, remember the connection.
“Deleting the connection” and “remembering the connection” using our human brains are other 5-second level skills.