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by logicprog 2535 days ago
Good solutions can often be left on the table, even by experts in $INDUSTRY, apart from whether they're experts or not; it's often a systemic thing. It's perfectly possible for an intelligent, rational person who is good at thinking about large and complex systems (who are overrepresented in the tech industry) to have an insight (that individuals in that industry might already have had) about things outside their own industry.

Relevant article: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/30/book-review-inadequate...

1 comments

Your relevant article doesn't even get the first paragraph right. The Efficient Market Hypothesis doesn't mean eg that markets result in efficient use of resources or societally efficient/optimal outcomes, which the author seems to imply.
Well, the idea of the EMH (as I understand) is that the stock prices for things should be at an optimal price already and trying to beat market prices is basically a game of chance. Since one of the examples he gives is about the stock market and investing, I don't think his offhand statement is that far off.

More importantly, that's not really Central to the argument of the book he's reviewing or the argument of his post itself, it's a mostly irrelevant detail that you've picked on for no discernable reason.

I'm going to quote the first paragraph here:

> Eliezer Yudkowsky’s catchily-titled Inadequate Equilibria is many things. It’s a look into whether there is any role for individual reason in a world where you can always just trust expert consensus. It’s an analysis of the efficient market hypothesis and how it relates to the idea of low-hanging fruit. It’s a self-conscious defense of the author’s own arrogance.

And then quote again the only reference to the EMH:

> It’s an analysis of the efficient market hypothesis and how it relates to the idea of low-hanging fruit.

How, just how can you say something 'bedobi upthread? It's frankly a "fake news" level comment. I hate those, because it looks legit enough that people will take the lie at face value.