Cedric Chin on Twitter: "@noididntreadit Oh no, I actually really really like LessWrong. My criticism stems from recognition that they’re more interested debating beliefs and worldviews than they are in using rationality to do things." / Twitter

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Someone should write a framework for putting cognitive biases to practice. Kinda like this

There has been an uptick in self-help books and blogs about mental models. But, there's a problem when putting it in practice.

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There’s a reason it’s not useful, actually. Decision science consists of 3 pts: descriptive models (how people normally think), normative models (how they should think/make optimal decisions), prescriptive models (how to get from descriptive to normative). Biases are descriptive.

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I’m slightly surprised not one person has asked: “so what are the prescriptive models in the literature?” I won’t say that using a cognitive bias is itself a bias. Understanding the descriptive models and the normative models are necessary for using the prescriptive ones.

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What are the most common prescriptive models? I'm imagining Confirmation Bias as descriptive and Thinking From First Principles as normative (situationally at least), but what gets you from A to B? (feel free to choose different A and B)

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It'll probably take a blog post to do justice, but here's a collection from Baron's Thinking and Deciding. (I'm probably breaking copyright law for uploading an entire chapter, so I'll take this down as some point) dropbox.com/s/32n320o6k0qg

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Note: requires understanding of the search inference framework, which I've summarised here: commoncog.com/blog/putting-m IMO, Baron's approach of arresting the 3 errors of search-inference is more useful than the goal of 'achieving perfect instrumental rationality'.

commoncog.com

Putting Mental Models to Practice Part 3: Better Trial and Error

Instrumental rationality is the sort of thinking that allows you to achieve your goals. We take a closer look at what decision science says is the 'best' way to pursue this purpose.

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Oh, the decision making/search inference process is the preceptive "model"? I was thinking of something more red-pillish, but I think I'm grasping it now. Would the Scientific Method fit that mold too?

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I'm more of a book summary person so I hope you don't mind me using Less Wrong instead of the real chapter you linked. Despite your criticism of them it's convenience of the top Google result, I've read less of their blog than yours after last night. lesswrong.com/posts/mn3WdvME

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Cedric Chin

@ejames_c

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@PeterW__

Oh no, I actually really really like LessWrong. My criticism stems from recognition that they’re more interested debating beliefs and worldviews than they are in using rationality to do things.

1:50 PM · Jul 27, 2019Tweetbot for iΟS

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Gotcha, some of their stuff is in my todo (eventually) list, too little exposure so far. Any specific recommendations come to mind (just by name/topic, no need to hunt for links)?

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lesswrong.com/posts/RWo4LwFz on procrastination. lesswrong.com/posts/zEWJBFFM is a very high level overview of decision theory. lesswrong.com/posts/hR92kW2Z

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