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"Incentives" is Astrology for Nerds - by Gabe

cognition.cafe · 828 words · saved by 1 readers

A short follow-up rant to intentions-based reasoning.

As explained in a recent article, reasoning about people’s intentions is a natural instinct that leads to many mistakes. Indeed, reasoning about people’s intentions is hard. We do not have access to them, and very often, we do not have access to our own either. Furthermore, the mechanics of people’s thoughts are extremely complex, our internal lives being so rich and all. My recommendation is to focus on aspects of reality that are easier to study, like actions. Actions are easier to study by virtue of being much more objective than intentions, and much harder to fake. Alas, people do not…

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