title: rational
contenttype: article
publication: Guide on ANTON
published: 2024-06-30T00:00:00+00:00
sourceurl: https://troynikov.io/notes/rational/
word_count: 162
people are on the whole insane, individually and collectively in the sense that the way they act and what they believe is not reflective of an underlying reality people are unable to express their own preferences, and often hold contradictory preferences without noticing in economics there is the idea of ‘revealed preferences’ but seldom is the consitency of preferences examined both stated and revealed preferences vary wildly depending on context because people are insane, the idea that they ‘respond to incentives’ is obviously wrong people will ratioanlize their decisions in terms of what incentives they believe led to their decision, but rarely can people describe which factors will influence their decision in advance often choices must be made among nearly identical options, and under these circumstances the decision however consequential is made essentially at random you have spooks in your brain update (26.Aug.24): seems pareto came to the same conclusion in ‘general sociology’; people are motivated by ‘residues’ but rationalize through ‘derivations’