Comments on: Neurotypicals are irrational beasts

By: Roland Branconnier

Roland Branconnier — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:29:35 +0000

George Santayana said: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Overcoming our irrational cognitive biases requires knowledge and hard work. To learn what those biases are and how to overcome them, I recommend reading:
Shermer, Michael. The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics. New York: Times Books, 2008
Shermer can supply the knowledge, the hard work is up to you!

By: deadpost

deadpost — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:16:19 +0000

Hmmm… Perhaps the modern world allows a fitness advantage to the hyper-rational autist who isn’t hampered by excess loss aversion. Maybe that’s why “non-neurotypical” traits are on the rise in modern times.

By: dev

dev — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:35:44 +0000

I think your analysis here is correct, including your conclusion that most people are “willing to accept a trade off between rate of growth and volatility of growth which minimizes the latter.”. I’d add that even in our post-Malthusian society there are still valid reasons to be risk-averse. For example, given most families’ needs to secure adequate health insurance, pay for home mortgages, etc., it’s perfectly understandable why most people don’t quit their jobs and start small businesses, or join startups, or pick up and move to new cities, or whatever other courses of action they’re always being urged to take in order to maximize their lifetime earnings and family wealth. On average they might indeed do so, but the consequences of failure can be pretty severe in terms of maintaining their prior station in life.
You didn’t mention it, but your comments here are also of a piece with your past comments about religion: It’s part of (almost) all humans’ cognitive make-up, so it’s pointless to rage against it as “irrational” in the hopes that you can argue people out of it.