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I think he is quite right, but the real blind spots are way higher in the human thought than object representation. Perhaps that's how it has to be, at the very

I think he is quite right, but the real blind spots are way higher in the human thought than object representation. Perhaps that's how it has to be, at the very top level of cognition, there is no other mechanism for correcting errors, except perhaps somewhat following behavior of other people, which may also be completely foolish (or may be deliberately obscured). I just commented here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10460022 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10460022 Maybe, just like the beetle looks for a good bottle, we need a good narrative (or friend recommendation) to find the news or idea interesting. Or another example, many believe in free markets, despite evidence (which can be interpreted as an argument both for and against free markets) that people (including the believers) don't want to participate in free markets. The thing called "ego" often seems to act against the true reality. It would be my prime candidate for the blind spot in human thought.

stevetrewick 11y ago
>despite evidence Such as?
- asgard1024 11y ago
  Eh, where to start.. Probably with the Peter Thiel's famous line "competition is for losers". Then you have things like industry associations or unions the sole purpose of which is to advocate non-free market for a certain group of people. Governments (comprised of people, not aliens!) enacting things like subsidies, intellectual property, limited liability, social security, privacy and many other regulation ensure that free market doesn't happen. Free market predicts zero margin but most industries operate pretty far from that, for a good reason. It's also undesirable from the workers perspective - free market translates as subsistence wages. Everybody is running from the free market as fast as they can; there is a reason why "price war" is called "war" - it's an exhausting and ugly enterprise.
chillacy 11y ago
> the real blind spots are way higher in the human thought than object representation Ah yea, the fun stuff like cognitive biases. One famous example is priming, which introduces time dependencies that most people do not pay attention to (when asked they believe that their decisions were not influenced by a past event): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology) Kahneman discusses that and more in Thinking Fast & Slow
- asgard1024 11y ago
  Not quite, I think even most cognitive biases can be corrected at higher level of thought. It's more like cognitive dissonances and the strategies you use to cope with them, but it's hard to tell without knowing the architecture of the brain.
  - chillacy 11y ago
    Sure, I think you can attempt to correct for if you know about them, but that's still extra work, and it's still compensation that you can over or undershoot. And then of course they don't really teach this in public schools, so most people just aren't aware. I do think we're doing an okay job in some areas, like pilot training, the scientific method, etc. But we're doing a terrible job in other important fields, like politics

stevetrewick 11y ago

>despite evidence Such as?

asgard1024 11y ago
Eh, where to start.. Probably with the Peter Thiel's famous line "competition is for losers". Then you have things like industry associations or unions the sole purpose of which is to advocate non-free market for a certain group of people. Governments (comprised of people, not aliens!) enacting things like subsidies, intellectual property, limited liability, social security, privacy and many other regulation ensure that free market doesn't happen. Free market predicts zero margin but most industries operate pretty far from that, for a good reason. It's also undesirable from the workers perspective - free market translates as subsistence wages. Everybody is running from the free market as fast as they can; there is a reason why "price war" is called "war" - it's an exhausting and ugly enterprise.

chillacy 11y ago

> the real blind spots are way higher in the human thought than object representation Ah yea, the fun stuff like cognitive biases. One famous example is priming, which introduces time dependencies that most people do not pay attention to (when asked they believe that their decisions were not influenced by a past event): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology) Kahneman discusses that and more in Thinking Fast & Slow

asgard1024 11y ago
Not quite, I think even most cognitive biases can be corrected at higher level of thought. It's more like cognitive dissonances and the strategies you use to cope with them, but it's hard to tell without knowing the architecture of the brain.
- chillacy 11y ago
  Sure, I think you can attempt to correct for if you know about them, but that's still extra work, and it's still compensation that you can over or undershoot. And then of course they don't really teach this in public schools, so most people just aren't aware. I do think we're doing an okay job in some areas, like pilot training, the scientific method, etc. But we're doing a terrible job in other important fields, like politics