{"id":47,"date":"2016-12-03T20:11:02","date_gmt":"2016-12-03T20:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/?p=47"},"modified":"2017-02-02T14:19:24","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T14:19:24","slug":"the-irrationality-of-irrationality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2016\/12\/03\/the-irrationality-of-irrationality\/","title":{"rendered":"The Irrationality of Irrationality"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you let the word \u201cirrational\u201d roll off your tongue, you do a very irrational thing: You specify something that doesn’t exist. It is very much like trying do describe a vaccum (not the cleaner, but rather the contents of emptiness).<\/h3>\n

These days, it is very popular and a big hit to argue that people are economically motivated by irrational behaviors. That is also sort of like saying \u201clight is dark\u201d.<\/h3>\n

Arguing with such nonsense is an exercise in futility. Just because someone can’t explain something does not<\/em> mean there is no explanation for it<\/em>. Besides that, I challenge anyone to give an adequately precise definition of the term \u201cirrational\u201d. In my opinion, the fact that a brain is in a living state means that there is some kind<\/em> of rationalization going on. It may seem<\/em> odd, but mainly if you are unfamiliar with odd things, odd thought, odd behavior and such.<\/h3>\n

Let me give you an example. There’s a guy named Dan Ariely who maintains to be an expert on irrationality. I’ve watched some of his presentations, and I’ve observed that he actually seems to be jiving people: He says he talks about irrational behavior, but actually what he is talking about behavior that simply doesn’t conform to the laws of economics commonly taught in academia. For example, in one talk I paid attention to, he mentioned some law which basically said that if someone prefers A to B and also prefers B to C, it would be irrational to prefer C to A. What nonsense! This would be like saying that if someone likes ketchup more than relish, they would do something like drink a whole bottle of ketchup right out of the bottle. My hunch is that before someone had drunk less than half the bottle, they would no longer go near the ketchup for at least a week. Would that be irrational<\/em>?<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you let the word \u201cirrational\u201d roll off your tongue, you do a very irrational thing: You specify something that doesn’t exist. It is very much like trying do describe a vaccum (not the cleaner, but rather the contents of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[313],"tags":[261,256,257,262,149,254,258,259,260,24,255],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w79D-L","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":217,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2020\/11\/06\/hope-change-flipping-the-f-word-removing-the-old-fashioned-r-word\/","url_meta":{"origin":47,"position":0},"title":"Hope & Change: Flipping the F-word & Removing the Old-Fashioned R-word","author":"nmw","date":"November 6, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I have an important announcement to make: I've learned something -- and what I learned has helped me to change my course. Many years ago, I started using Facebook (in large part because one of my friends said \u201cfacebook\u201d was college slang for '[student] directory' -- and indeed, it may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":200,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2019\/12\/27\/automatism-automaticity-what-is-my-role\/","url_meta":{"origin":47,"position":1},"title":"Automatism + Automaticity \u2013 What is my role?","author":"nmw","date":"December 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"While writing the previous episodes, I wondered how other people would react to them. I decided to publish them even though I think most people are not very concerned about the well-being of others. I expect most people will react with something like \u201cwhat do I care what happens after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":252,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2021\/11\/28\/a-brief-history-of-the-gradual-shift-from-submission-censorship-towards-self-publishing\/","url_meta":{"origin":47,"position":2},"title":"A Brief History of the Gradual Shift from Submission Censorship towards Self Publishing","author":"nmw","date":"November 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my friends who has enough patience to patiently listen to my own long-winded diatribes into various affairs in the realms of such sophisticated topics as literacy, economics or even the conditions of life in general (yet who will also occasionally interject and pepper my arguments with opinionated remarks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2016\/07\/21\/the-rationality-of-algorithms-facebook-algorithm-google-algorithms-or-no-algorithm-at-all\/","url_meta":{"origin":47,"position":3},"title":"The Rationality of Algorithms: Facebook Algorithm, Google Algorithms or No Algorithm at All?","author":"nmw","date":"July 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If you could choose any of the following three options, which one would you pick? Facebook Algorithm Google Algorithms No Algorithm whatsoever Granted: You probably have more choices than that \u2013 I'm just trying to keep it simple (stupid ;) ). Let's review the steps involved. First, you publish something.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":158,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2019\/07\/09\/re-on-bullshit\/","url_meta":{"origin":47,"position":4},"title":"RE: On Bullshit","author":"nmw","date":"July 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend of mine recently mentioned he has back-ordered \u201cOn Bullshit\u201d (by Harry Frankfurt) and I thought \u201coh neat \u2013 maybe I can borrow it sometime for a day or two\u201d... but then I realized something. Bullshit is not rare or special or in any way particular. It is widespread.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":261,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2023\/01\/10\/a-quick-start-summary-of-the-past-couple-years\/","url_meta":{"origin":47,"position":5},"title":"A Quick-Start Summary of the Past Couple Years","author":"nmw","date":"January 10, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"In case you are just now emerging from your man-cave, your woman-cave or perhaps some basement (having been playing video games for the past couple years), here is a short note from one of my father's (RIP) colleagues -- you might want to pay attention to: I\u2019ve been trying to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/crypto.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/crypto.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/crypto.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/crypto.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/crypto.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/crypto.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}