One of my growing convictions is that values (either explicit or revealed preference in market/non-market environs) simply don’t matter beyond one big purpose: coalition formation through virtue signaling. Behavior is 99% shaped by imitation of what you see working for others.
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Replying to @vgr
values don't inform an individual's decision making process outside of social contexts?
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Replying to @danlistensto
To a first approximation, yeah. You buy shoes 99% because you see they work for others in protecting feet. The remaining 1% is decisions like non-leather for animal rights or minimalist for barefoot running ideology.
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Replying to @vgr
you buy Timberland brand boots because you needed foot protection and saw others were pleased with their Timberland brand boots. You don't miraculously discover that your feet need protecting by observing others. You figure that one out for yourself by walking.
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Replying to @danlistensto
Taleb’s example of suitcases on wheels is a good one here. Why it took till the 1960s before somebody thought of putting wheels on suitcases is unclear.
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Replying to @vgr
Speculatively, because prior to the 1960s with the modern airport terminal, traveling had relatively few spaces where rolling your luggage made any sense?
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Replying to @danlistensto
Possibly. Or people with marble-floored palaces also had servants whose well-being they didn’t have to care about. And bell-carts, which I think predate roller suitcases. But point is, most people probably didn’t go around wishing for wheeled suitcases until they first saw one.
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Replying to @vgr
so what's the value there and how is it being socially signaled?
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not meaning to be adversarial. what I mean is more like "what is the subset of values that ARE primarily social signals" because I reject that this is true for the whole category.
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