I mean, very frequently it’s useful to just know what someone’s credence is. That’s often an order of magnitude cheaper to provide, and often is itself quite a bit of evidence. This is like saying that all statements of opinions or expressions of feelings are bad, unless they are accompanied with evidence, which seems like it would massively worsen communication.
I mean, very frequently it’s useful to just know what someone’s credence is. That’s often an order of magnitude cheaper to provide, and often is itself quite a bit of evidence.
I agree, but only if they’re a reliable forecaster. A superforecaster’s credence can shift my credence significantly. It’s possible that their credences are based off a lot of information that shifts their own credence by 1%. In that case, it’s not practical for them to provide all the evidence, and you are right.
But most people are poor forecasters (and sometimes they explicitly state they have no supporting evidence other than their intuition), so I see no reason to update my credence just because someone I don’t know is confident. If the credence of a random person has any value to my own credence, it’s very low.
This is like saying that all statements of opinions or expressions of feelings are bad, unless they are accompanied with evidence, which seems like it would massively worsen communication.
That would depend on the question. Sometimes we’re interested in feelings for their own sake. That’s perfectly legitimate because the actual evidence we’re wanting is the data about their feelings. But if someone’s giving their feelings about whether there are an infinite number of primes, it doesn’t update my credences at all.
I think opinions without any supporting argument worsen discourse. Imagine a group of people thoughtfully discussing evidence, then someone comes in, states their feelings without any evidence, and then leaves. That shouldn’t be taken seriously. Increasing the proportion of those people only makes it worse.
Bayesians should want higher-quality evidence. Isn’t self-reported data is unreliable? And that’s when the person was there when the event happened. So what is the reference class for people providing opinions without having evidence? It’s almost certainly even more unreliable. If someone has an argument for their credence, they should usually give that argument; if they don’t have an argument, I’m not sure why they’re adding to the conversation.
I’m not saying we need to provide peer-reviewed articles. I just want to see some line of reasoning demonstrating why you came to the conclusion you made, so that everyone can examine your assumptions and inferences. If we have different credences and the set of things I’ve considered is a strict subset of yours, you might update your credence because you mistakenly think I’ve considered something you haven’t.
Yes, but unreliability does not mean that you instead just use vague words instead of explicit credences. It’s a fine critique to say that people make too many arguments without giving evidence (something I also disagree with, but that isn’t the subject of this thread), but you are concretely making the point that it’s additionally bad for them to give explicit credences! But the credences only help, compared to vague and ambiguous terms that people would use instead.
I’m not sure how you think that’s what I said. Here’s what I actually said:
A superforecaster’s credence can shift my credence significantly...
If the credence of a random person has any value to my own credence, it’s very low...
The evidence someone provides is far more important than someone’s credence (unless you know the person is highly calibrated and precise)...
[credences are] how people should think...
if you’re going to post your credence, provide some evidence so that you can update other people’s credences too.
I thought I was fairly clear about what my position is. Credences have internal value (you should generate your own credence). Superforecasters’ credences have external value (their credence should update yours). Uncalibrated random people’s credences don’t have much external value (they shouldn’t shift your credence much). And an argument for your credence should always be given.
I never said vague words are valuable, and in fact I think the opposite.
This is an empirical question. Again, what is the reference class for people providing opinions without having evidence? We could look at all of the unsupported credences on the forum and see how accurate they turned out to be. My guess is that they’re of very little value, for all the reasons I gave in previous comments.
you are concretely making the point that it’s additionally bad for them to give explicit credences!
I demonstrated a situation where a credence without evidence is harmful:
If we have different credences and the set of things I’ve considered is a strict subset of yours, you might update your credence because you mistakenly think I’ve considered something you haven’t.
The only way we can avoid such a situation is either by providing a supporting argument for our credences, OR not updating our credences in light of other people’s unsupported credences.
I mean, very frequently it’s useful to just know what someone’s credence is. That’s often an order of magnitude cheaper to provide, and often is itself quite a bit of evidence. This is like saying that all statements of opinions or expressions of feelings are bad, unless they are accompanied with evidence, which seems like it would massively worsen communication.
I agree, but only if they’re a reliable forecaster. A superforecaster’s credence can shift my credence significantly. It’s possible that their credences are based off a lot of information that shifts their own credence by 1%. In that case, it’s not practical for them to provide all the evidence, and you are right.
But most people are poor forecasters (and sometimes they explicitly state they have no supporting evidence other than their intuition), so I see no reason to update my credence just because someone I don’t know is confident. If the credence of a random person has any value to my own credence, it’s very low.
That would depend on the question. Sometimes we’re interested in feelings for their own sake. That’s perfectly legitimate because the actual evidence we’re wanting is the data about their feelings. But if someone’s giving their feelings about whether there are an infinite number of primes, it doesn’t update my credences at all.
I think opinions without any supporting argument worsen discourse. Imagine a group of people thoughtfully discussing evidence, then someone comes in, states their feelings without any evidence, and then leaves. That shouldn’t be taken seriously. Increasing the proportion of those people only makes it worse.
Bayesians should want higher-quality evidence. Isn’t self-reported data is unreliable? And that’s when the person was there when the event happened. So what is the reference class for people providing opinions without having evidence? It’s almost certainly even more unreliable. If someone has an argument for their credence, they should usually give that argument; if they don’t have an argument, I’m not sure why they’re adding to the conversation.
I’m not saying we need to provide peer-reviewed articles. I just want to see some line of reasoning demonstrating why you came to the conclusion you made, so that everyone can examine your assumptions and inferences. If we have different credences and the set of things I’ve considered is a strict subset of yours, you might update your credence because you mistakenly think I’ve considered something you haven’t.
Yes, but unreliability does not mean that you instead just use vague words instead of explicit credences. It’s a fine critique to say that people make too many arguments without giving evidence (something I also disagree with, but that isn’t the subject of this thread), but you are concretely making the point that it’s additionally bad for them to give explicit credences! But the credences only help, compared to vague and ambiguous terms that people would use instead.
I’m not sure how you think that’s what I said. Here’s what I actually said:
I thought I was fairly clear about what my position is. Credences have internal value (you should generate your own credence). Superforecasters’ credences have external value (their credence should update yours). Uncalibrated random people’s credences don’t have much external value (they shouldn’t shift your credence much). And an argument for your credence should always be given.
I never said vague words are valuable, and in fact I think the opposite.
This is an empirical question. Again, what is the reference class for people providing opinions without having evidence? We could look at all of the unsupported credences on the forum and see how accurate they turned out to be. My guess is that they’re of very little value, for all the reasons I gave in previous comments.
I demonstrated a situation where a credence without evidence is harmful:
The only way we can avoid such a situation is either by providing a supporting argument for our credences, OR not updating our credences in light of other people’s unsupported credences.