How can we make these decisions outside the highly specific situations where (by the nature of the thought experiment) results and probabilities are known?
In real life, humans oftentimes don’t know what are the possible consequences of an action (e.g. supporting a political candidate and them not governing according to stated policies), or the probabilities of a consequence occurring (e.g. what is the probability my new partner is offended or entertained by my edgy joke), or even that they are making a decision (e.g. a fat person who oftentimes stress-eats without thinking).
In explicit material, I agree with the post, but it is the practicality of reasoning in such a way that worries me.
Adding to that, to me it seems intuitive that when humans are uncertain, that is some deep heuristic screaming about how something isn’t right with the situation at hand, warranting more humility and thinking about it.
In the end, how do these contents interact with epistemic humility to guide human behavior in practice?
I am curious about how morale interacts with purpose. Whatever a person experiences as a purpose in their life determines *what* they find valuable, and thus morale depends not only on material conditions but also perception of return on effort through lens of purpose.
Perhaps that is why people who appreciate the process regardless of outcomes experience more positive emotions than those who are after the result—their morale is perpetually rising once their mind finds the act of doing itself enjoyable.
On the other hand, I am also curious about how the act of scrolling social media fits into the post and comment. Obviously, for the vast majority of people, there is no (conscieous) purpose to what they are doing, and therefore the post implies they should naturally cease with the behavior. Hidden purpose of scrolling is delaying pain or certain emotions, so that is the drive behind scrolling, lining up nicely with theories predicting that once underlying problem is solved, a person can shake off any addiction much easier.
Now that I think about it, both the commend and the post remind me of the way of thinking from biology and psychology that almost all traits have (had) the adaptive value in a given environment, and that’s why they persist.