Overcoming Bias

Spooky Action at a Distance: The No-Communication Theorem

Previously in series:  Bell's Theorem: No EPR "Reality"

When you have a pair of entangled particles, such as oppositely polarized photons, one particle seems to somehow "know" the result of distant measurements on the other particle.  If you measure photon A to be polarized at 0°, photon B somehow immediately knows that it should have the opposite polarization of 90°.

Einstein famously called this "spukhafte Fernwirkung" or "spooky action at a distance".  Einstein didn't know about decoherence, so it seemed spooky to him.

Though, to be fair, Einstein knew perfectly well that the universe couldn't really be "spooky".  It was a then-popular interpretation of QM that Einstein was calling "spooky", not the universe itself.

How To Vs. What To

When should you seek decision advice?  One factor is decision size: the bigger the decision, the more effort you should devote, including effort to get advice.  Oddly, on our biggest decisions, other people seem to go out of their way to offer us advice that we don't want to hear or follow.  We rarely seek out advice, and when we do it is usually on much smaller decisions. 

For example, we like HowTo books, but not WhatTo books.  How to manage your computer, not what machine to manage.  How to please your partner, not what partner to please.  How to fix your house, not where to live.  How to drive fast, not what speed to drive.  How to get promoted, not what job to work at.  How to raise your kids, not how many kids to raise.  And so on.

One reason we avoid getting advice is that it lowers our status relative to those who give advice.  Of course this is also makes asking for advice a good way to flatter and supplicate.  Not sure if this explains the puzzle though.  But all this doesn't seem to bode well for fielding decision markets on the biggest organizational decisions. 

Economist As Scrooge

In Today's Weekly Standard, Harvard's Harvey Mansfield writes on "Saving Christmas From The Economists":

Economists ... have become critical of the frenzy of Christmas gift-making. ... Economic analysis says that consumers would be better off making their own purchases, buying things they know they want, rather than trying to get the benefit out of gifts bought ignorantly for them by others. Worse than ignorance is the imposition of the giver's own taste or views, ... The economy as a whole... would be better off without the surge in sales of Christmas gifts at the end of the year.  ...  In this aspect economics is ... a way of life--the life of efficiency and frugality. This life is bourgeois, middle-class, and opposed to your wasting your money on whims, as do rich aristocrats. ...