3 ms·
> No, none of this actually influences how normal people think and act. Well that's bloody stupid and innumerate of them. Surely, enabling such vices can't be
by mmirate 9y ago
> No, none of this actually influences how normal people think and act.
Well that's bloody stupid and innumerate of them. Surely, enabling such vices can't be good in the long-term.
... and how, again, are these people able to acquire positions of power such that we still have to care-about/interact-with them?
- mikeash 9y agoTurns out that having a solid logical understanding of the risks of accidental death is more or less uncorrelated with having the sort of people skills which allow a person to attain positions of power.
- mmirate 9y agoBut this points to not a specific misunderstanding of accidental death, but to a general inability to comprehend/apply statistics, which includes things such as cost/benefit analyses.
- mikeash 9y agoIt's fascinating to see nerds weird out over people's inability to comprehend basic probability and statistics (which the human brain is innately bad at) while displaying a complete inability to understand other people (which the human brain is innately great at). And yes, I do it too sometimes. Stop arguing about why the average person, or even the average powerful person, ought to have an excellent understanding of these things, and start exploring why they don't. You'll come out of it more informed.