4 ms·

Having a friendly face to bend the rules creates a breeding ground for iniquity. We can’t have both - and the current direction seems to be to prefer reducing i

Having a friendly face to bend the rules creates a breeding ground for iniquity. We can’t have both - and the current direction seems to be to prefer reducing inequalities, rather than having people help break the rules for others that they like.

verisimi 5y ago
That's fine if the rules are applied everywhere, but the reality is that everything - even rules - are for sale. If there is a powerful controlling class that writes the rules that apply to the oi polloi but not themselves, how will you achieve equity?
sometimeshuman 5y ago
Humans can learn to have an exceptional judge of character, see the big picture, and quietly subvert bad policy by feigned incompetence. These benevolent bosses/bureaucrats are history's unsung heroes and we need to be very careful before automating them out of our future.
- notriddle 5y ago
  It seems like most people think they’re better than average at judging the character of others, which cannot be true [1]. Under testing, everyone seems to be pretty bad at recognizing liars [2]. It’s especially hard to get good because it’s often an open loop, since good liars are never caught at all (classic toupee fallacy — you think you’re good at catching liars because you don’t know about the ones you missed), you never really get the chance to calibrate. [1]: maybe with specific definitions of “average” and a very lopsided distribution, but I’m doubting that the people who think they have exceptional judges of character actually believe that they are above the mean but near the mode; usually, if someone is “exceptional,” I assume they’re in a high percentile [2]: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/03/how-to-spot-a-liar/618425/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/03/how-to-s... — https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26607386 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26607386
- edmundsauto 5y ago
  This context also creates a breeding ground for corruption. TINSTAAFL, it's all tradeoffs all the way down.

verisimi 5y ago

That's fine if the rules are applied everywhere, but the reality is that everything - even rules - are for sale. If there is a powerful controlling class that writes the rules that apply to the oi polloi but not themselves, how will you achieve equity?

sometimeshuman 5y ago

Humans can learn to have an exceptional judge of character, see the big picture, and quietly subvert bad policy by feigned incompetence. These benevolent bosses/bureaucrats are history's unsung heroes and we need to be very careful before automating them out of our future.

notriddle 5y ago
It seems like most people think they’re better than average at judging the character of others, which cannot be true [1]. Under testing, everyone seems to be pretty bad at recognizing liars [2]. It’s especially hard to get good because it’s often an open loop, since good liars are never caught at all (classic toupee fallacy — you think you’re good at catching liars because you don’t know about the ones you missed), you never really get the chance to calibrate. [1]: maybe with specific definitions of “average” and a very lopsided distribution, but I’m doubting that the people who think they have exceptional judges of character actually believe that they are above the mean but near the mode; usually, if someone is “exceptional,” I assume they’re in a high percentile [2]: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/03/how-to-spot-a-liar/618425/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/03/how-to-s... — https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26607386 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26607386
edmundsauto 5y ago
This context also creates a breeding ground for corruption. TINSTAAFL, it's all tradeoffs all the way down.