Comment by Adaptive on Rationality Quotes - July 2009 · 2009-07-03T00:45:42.959Z · LW · GW

Go is a game of big moves and little moves. One problem we will examine here is what may look big now can, in the final analysis, be small, and vice versa. The ability to see what is and what is not territory and potential territory is to see the truth on the board.

– Peter Shotwell, Go: More than a game

Comment by Adaptive on Honesty: Beyond Internal Truth · 2009-06-10T04:19:04.038Z · LW · GW

It seems to be a questionable assumption that other people's interests are best served by

• my subjective evaluation of what is true
• the communication of this in full, regardless of circumstance

I am reminded of the Buddhist terms upaya and prajna which I believe are commonly translated as "insight" and "means" respectively, but which I first encountered as "truth" and "utility". The principle, as I understood it when studying the subject, was that while one may feel in possession of a truth, it is not always useful to simply communicate that truth directly. I have personally taken true/useful as dual criteria for my own interpersonal (though not intrapersonal) communication.

I'll leave the ends-justifies-the-means implication of such a truth/utility formulation for a separate time and place.