Read Online Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky - Free Book Online
Authors: Eliezer Yudkowsky
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wizarding world, and Madam Pomfrey has a full healer’s office. You won’t need a healer’s kit at all, let alone a five-Galleon one.”
“But I
do!
” Harry burst out. ”
Nowhere
is perfectly safe! And what if my parents have a heart attack or get in an accident when I go home for Christmas - Madam Pomfrey won’t be there, I’ll need a healer’s kit of my own -”
“
What
in Merlin’s name…” Professor McGonagall said. She stood up, and looked down at Harry an expression torn between annoyance and concern. “There’s no need to think about such terrible things, Mr. Potter!”
Harry’s expression twisted up into bitterness, hearing that. “Yes there
is!
If you don’t think, you don’t just get hurt yourself, you end up hurting other people!”
Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, then closed it. The witch rubbed the bridge of her nose, looking thoughtful. “Mr. Potter… if I were to offer to listen to you for a while… is there anything you’d like to talk to me about?”
“About what?”
“About why you’re convinced you must always be on your guard against terrible things happening to you.”
Harry stared at her in puzzlement. That was a self-evident axiom. “Well…” Harry said slowly. He tried to organise his thoughts. How
could
he explain himself to a Professor-witch, when she didn’t even know the basics? “Muggle researchers have found that people are always very optimistic, compared to reality. Like they say something will take two days and it takes ten days, or they say it’ll take two months and it takes over thirty-five years. For example, in one experiment, they asked students for times by which they were 50% sure, 75% sure, and 99% sure they’d complete their homework, and only 13%, 19%, and 45% of the students finished by those times. And they found that the reason was that when they asked one group for their best-case estimates if everything went as well as possible, and another group for their average-case estimates if everything went as usual, they got back answers that were statistically indistinguishable. See, if you ask someone what they expect in the
normal
case, they visualise what looks like the line of maximum probability at each step along the way - everything going according to plan, with no surprises. But actually, since more than half the students didn’t finish by the time they were 99% sure they’d be done, reality usually delivers results a little worse than the ‘worst-case scenario’. It’s called the planning fallacy, and the best way to fix it is to ask how long things took the last time you tried them. That’s called using the outside view instead of the inside view. But when you’re doing something new and can’t do that, you just have to be really, really, really pessimistic. Like, so pessimistic that reality actually comes out
better
than you expected around as often and as much as it comes out worse. It’s actually
really hard
to be
so
pessimistic that you stand a decent chance of
undershooting
real life. Like I make this big effort to be gloomy and I imagine one of my classmates getting bitten, but what actually happens is that the surviving Death Eaters attack the whole school to get at me. But on a happier note -”
“Stop,” said Professor McGonagall.
Harry stopped. He had just been about to point out that at least they knew the Dark Lord wouldn’t attack, since he was dead.
“I think I might not have made myself clear,” the witch said, her precise Scottish voice sounding even more careful. “Did anything happen to
you personally
that frightened you, Mr. Potter?”
“What happened to me personally is only anecdotal evidence,” Harry explained. “It doesn’t carry the same weight as a replicated, peer-reviewed journal article about a controlled study with random assignment, many subjects, large effect sizes and strong statistical significance.”
Professor McGonagall pinched the bridge of her nose, inhaled, and
“But I
do!
” Harry burst out. ”
Nowhere
is perfectly safe! And what if my parents have a heart attack or get in an accident when I go home for Christmas - Madam Pomfrey won’t be there, I’ll need a healer’s kit of my own -”
“
What
in Merlin’s name…” Professor McGonagall said. She stood up, and looked down at Harry an expression torn between annoyance and concern. “There’s no need to think about such terrible things, Mr. Potter!”
Harry’s expression twisted up into bitterness, hearing that. “Yes there
is!
If you don’t think, you don’t just get hurt yourself, you end up hurting other people!”
Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, then closed it. The witch rubbed the bridge of her nose, looking thoughtful. “Mr. Potter… if I were to offer to listen to you for a while… is there anything you’d like to talk to me about?”
“About what?”
“About why you’re convinced you must always be on your guard against terrible things happening to you.”
Harry stared at her in puzzlement. That was a self-evident axiom. “Well…” Harry said slowly. He tried to organise his thoughts. How
could
he explain himself to a Professor-witch, when she didn’t even know the basics? “Muggle researchers have found that people are always very optimistic, compared to reality. Like they say something will take two days and it takes ten days, or they say it’ll take two months and it takes over thirty-five years. For example, in one experiment, they asked students for times by which they were 50% sure, 75% sure, and 99% sure they’d complete their homework, and only 13%, 19%, and 45% of the students finished by those times. And they found that the reason was that when they asked one group for their best-case estimates if everything went as well as possible, and another group for their average-case estimates if everything went as usual, they got back answers that were statistically indistinguishable. See, if you ask someone what they expect in the
normal
case, they visualise what looks like the line of maximum probability at each step along the way - everything going according to plan, with no surprises. But actually, since more than half the students didn’t finish by the time they were 99% sure they’d be done, reality usually delivers results a little worse than the ‘worst-case scenario’. It’s called the planning fallacy, and the best way to fix it is to ask how long things took the last time you tried them. That’s called using the outside view instead of the inside view. But when you’re doing something new and can’t do that, you just have to be really, really, really pessimistic. Like, so pessimistic that reality actually comes out
better
than you expected around as often and as much as it comes out worse. It’s actually
really hard
to be
so
pessimistic that you stand a decent chance of
undershooting
real life. Like I make this big effort to be gloomy and I imagine one of my classmates getting bitten, but what actually happens is that the surviving Death Eaters attack the whole school to get at me. But on a happier note -”
“Stop,” said Professor McGonagall.
Harry stopped. He had just been about to point out that at least they knew the Dark Lord wouldn’t attack, since he was dead.
“I think I might not have made myself clear,” the witch said, her precise Scottish voice sounding even more careful. “Did anything happen to
you personally
that frightened you, Mr. Potter?”
“What happened to me personally is only anecdotal evidence,” Harry explained. “It doesn’t carry the same weight as a replicated, peer-reviewed journal article about a controlled study with random assignment, many subjects, large effect sizes and strong statistical significance.”
Professor McGonagall pinched the bridge of her nose, inhaled, and
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