If you told me I had a 35 percent chance of winning a million dollars tomorrow, I’d try to sell you my chance for 349 thousand dollars.
saliency
I think your and Eliezer’s statements contain much more signaling then counter-signaling and is why they work with strangers.
The school of thought shminux represents, though not popular in the main stream, is one I ascribe to. Bryan Caplan and a few others have books on the subject.
Shminux, this though is exactly why I see this group to be of value. I don’t want to spend a lot of time doing research. I want to examine three peoples strategies and trust that I can blindly go with the suggestions, or at least have a strong starting point.
I am pro-breast feeding but skeptical of the IQ claim. Can you link the study?
My guess is they compare the avg IQ to the average of a selection of people who breast feed.
I would expect this to be subject to selection bias.
“Still seems it strange, that thou shouldst live forever? Is it less strange, that thou shouldst live at all? This is a miracle; and that no more.” Edward Young
You wanted M&Ms. If you had not had a $1 bill you would not have gotten them.
Thank you for the link.
I think the title “Site features” is not ideal for this topic. I am probably doing it wrong but only found it after I knew it existed in the wiki.
I like how Robin Hanson points out that healthcare spending gets messed up by peoples need to signal loyalty to each other.
When you attach a price to medicine you are signaling a limit to you loyalty.
Credit Cards vs Payday Loans and Layaway.
I cannot pull out the reference but I have read that consumers are very responsive to credit cards; that those who do not carry balances know little about the rate that they would be charge while they know more about the perks they get from using the card, cash back etc.
It is shown that many of those who carry balances on the cards pick cards with lower rates and move balances when rates rise.
Some get trapped but is this trap worse than payday loans? If one over regulates unsecured lines of credit then the supply of unsecured credit will decrease and those in need of it will resort to black markets. The rate on a CC may be high but is far better than the options available 50 years ago. How can rates be low on a population with high default rates?
I love the idea of LW/OB meetups.
In fact I showed up for one listed in NYC at Georgia’s Bake Shop (corner of 89th st and Broadway) but no one else did :(
I agree, I think the system should be designed to handle trolls. Use mormon2 as a test.
If the system is not working perhaps it needs to be modified but should be modified for everyone. I like the part of the US constitution that restricts legislators from targeting individuals with legislation.
Selfishness is a counter signal/handicap http://lesswrong.com/lw/1sa/things_you_cant_countersignal/
How it is interpreted based entirely on your positive singles. Counter signals at best enhance the underlining signal.
If you are high status despite being rude then you must have some trait that compensates for your flaw. If you are low status and rude then you have no trait to compensate for your rudeness.
Strangers and counter-signaling:
You cannot counter signal with people who have no previous impression about the attribute you are counter-signaling.
Whether the person is a stranger or friend is irrelevant. A counter-signal is likely to work whenever the recipient already has a positive view of the attribute you are counter-signaling.
Note you can send a positive and negative (counter) signal at the same time. If the net is positive counter-signal will work.
Good friends don’t signal:
I think that friends that know you well do not pay much attention to signals or counter-signals. Signals are used when a person has incomplete information about another person.
Friends who really know you will not be fooled by fake counter-signals while strangers may be fooled if primed correctly beforehand with a positive signal.
Free the data!
The reporting engine they have created is impressive but it always better to have more people looking at the data. Who knows what mashups hackers on the side would make?
I applaud the idea of getting a large set medical data together though crowd sourcing. I just wish anyone could run there own statistics on the data.
Madoff committed fraud.
If you give me $1,000 for a ring that I tell you is platinum and it ends up being silver I have violated our contract.
Maldoff did not simply manage peoples money ineptly he stole it.
This was my first contact with this story. I still don’t feel informed.
Wikipedia was the best of the resources. The site arguing defendants are guilty was the worst. My probabilities on Konx and Sollecito are “high” because I feel I still have not found an argument against them that was properly constructed. Before lowering my probability to 1% I would like to hear a better explanation of why the court found them guilty.
Your probability estimate that Amanda Knox is guilty. p = 6%
Your probability estimate that Raffaele Sollecito is guilty. p= 6%
Your probability estimate that Rudy Guede is guilty. p = 70%
How much you think your opinion will turn out to coincide with mine. p = 90% (That we both agree in direction; that RG is probably guilty. I expect your probabilities are higher though)
** Note that I leave plenty of probability for the possibility that none of the three are guilty.
Because when in doubt go with convention.
I think there is a lot we don’t understand.
Now if my wife found it bothersome perhaps we would not follow convention, but so far it she likes doing it. From a fathers perspective it is vastly superior due to the ability to leave a bottle out of the refrigerator for 6 hours instead of 1.
In the first world people haggle by cutting coupons out of the newspaper. This is a form of price discrimination. It is also non-transparent pricing. Coupons also add to the asymmetry of information, ect,ect.
I would argue just the opposite, that we are way past our peak of transparent pricing and as time passes you will see a more byzantine maze develop.
As far as retail goes JC Penney recently failed in such a strategy be transparent.
Highlighted by MR
P.S. “You are trying to submit too fast. try again in 3 minutes.” - Is this really needed?
Thanks for the comment. I use fragile because I am rifting off, and a bit against, what I expect is Taleb’s idea for his new book antifragility.
“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.” --Woody Allen