Making the world better through sensible policies and AI

This is my blog. There are many like it but this is mine. In particular, opinions expressed here are definitely mine and not Google’s or the Packard Foundation’s.

What’s a mistake theory?

There are two main sources of disagreement about policy or ideas.

One is that ideas are mainly soldiers in a battle between opposing forces — the point of my argument is to enact policies that benefit my group, and maybe even policies that hurt the enemies of my group. This could be called “conflict theory”.

The second is that ideas are trying to get at some underlying truth of the matter, and disagreements are really about mistakes or miscommunications. We disagree on some policy because we disagree about what the outcomes or consequences would be. This is something that could (in theory) be resolved with better data or better analysis.

This site is dedicated to the latter, also known as “mistake theory”. [1] I believe that there are true things and false things, and that the difference matters. I’m much less interested in whether my team wins or loses, though of course I have a point of view and a rooting interest. Most people who disagree with me are not evil but are motivated to do good, and we just don’t agree about how to get there.

Topics will include policies of the data, AI, and whatever else seems of interest.

[1] Conflict versus mistake. Related: Hanlon’s Razor: never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity (or more charitably, mistakes).