Hulver's site || Comments || fear factor

Too much PRINCE2 by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #9 Thu Oct 11, 2007 at 08:14:57 AM EST

I think 'evaluate' and 'decision-making' are words too grand for most people's behaviour. I know that in general they're grander words than most of my lifestyle decisions. On the other hand, I know plenty of people who've made better choices than I have.

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i disagree by Merekat (4.00 / 1) #10 Thu Oct 11, 2007 at 08:19:45 AM EST

I think these processes happen, but quickly, sometimes subconsciously. In other words, I believe there is always a locally explicable why and a path towards it but finding it out retroactively what it was is frequently impossible.

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Well, decisions are made. by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #11 Thu Oct 11, 2007 at 08:33:21 AM EST

I'd just say that quite often they're made as a sum of short term decisions. Which obviously leads to finding local maxima for the function satisfactory_lifestyle (takes arguments nature, nurture), instead of going on to find the biggest summit possible. So that's why it's easy to see from the outside, or indeed in the abstract, that things are suboptimal, but it's hard to get the strength for that change from the top of one's own local maximum.

I'd disagree that it's impossible to find the decisions made that lead to a lifestyle, too. Assuming you have the cooperation of the person whose lifestyle it is, I think it's not too hard to decode what decisions they make wrong, what bad paths they've taken, and how to change behaviours.

This does assume sufficient time and intellect to analyse things well, of course. In cases where there is a failure of imagination or intellect, then the work of the external guide/detective is much harder. And in cases where there's narcissism or psychopathy, then it's pretty near impossible.

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impossibility by Merekat (4.00 / 1) #12 Thu Oct 11, 2007 at 08:39:36 AM EST

I think it is impossible to be sure, would be more sensible. Once you make an analysis of something, there is an evaluation going on which ranks some things higher than others and is influenced (in any direction) by vested interests, self-perception, societal expectations etc. It is always mediated, to use an annoying word.

On local maxima etc., I don't think it is necessarily 'best' to always work to the biggest summit possible. Overall a series of local maxima may be more pleasant to experience.

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: I think we're in agreement. by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #13 Thu Oct 11, 2007 at 08:51:52 AM EST

Although for local maxima, there's no reason why one of the vectors we're trying to maximise at the highest summit is 'how good it was to get there'. I'm assuming a perfect function. I guess it's the spherical cow* of this kind of quantitative analysis of qualitative experiences. Ditto for the analysis. I think it could be done well enough on a case by case basis. To do everyone that needed it: well, that would be far too much.
*I just googled for 'assume a spherical cow', but ironically the second author on that paper is one of the people who had a large influence on my thinking in this field. Although I was always at a disadvantage because I was trying to bridge this and bog standard Chomskyian linguistics. Also, my strategic decision making at the time was extremely poor. I should have had a year out before starting graduate school. I'll make sure anyone else I have to suggest it to does.

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You are saying... by Dr H0ffm4n (2.00 / 0) #14 Thu Nov 08, 2007 at 08:57:43 AM EST

that most crime is opportunistic. Which it is.

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