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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

There is an implicit dichotomy here that is inappropriate -- the choice between scholarly work with indifference to acclaim vs pure status seeking. But what if you want to do good? Then ideally you would seek status for the purpose of persuading people of the value of good ideas. Sadly, the latter often becomes a pure chase for status. Conversely, so-called purists are so indifferent to social convention that they blind themselves to useful interaction and (even when endowed with the truth) have no effective way of conveying those truths to the majority. Even worse, those who are autistic truth seekers can be biased by not knowing how to interpret useful comments or information when phrased in biased ways or presented in forms that aren't cleanly rational or neutrally argued. So their own work is itself biased by the unwillingness to understand and sympathize with the desire for collective feeling and status in ordinary humans. Knowing the latter while pursuing truth is hardest of all. But sadly, most "truth seekers" are happy to revel in their identity as asocial nerds even if it lessens their effectiveness as scholars.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

shilled for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in return for a quarter of a million dollars a month"I would shill for Qaddafi for half that.

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