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Parable of the vanilla ice cream curse (and how it would prevent a car from starting!) — LessWrong

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For those of us who understand that the obvious is not always the solution, and that the facts, no matter how implausible, are still the facts ... A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors: "This is the second time I have written you, and I don't blame you for not answering me, because I kind of sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of ice cream for dessert after dinner each night. But the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we've eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It's also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every time I buy vanilla ice cream, when I start back from the store my car won't start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I'm serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds: 'What is there abou

x Parable of the vanilla ice cream curse (and how it would prevent a car from starting!) — LessWrong Rationality World Modeling Frontpage 92 Parable of the vanilla ice cream curse (and how it would prevent a car from starting!) by Mati_Roy 8th Dec 2024 3 min read 21 92 Story from https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wkw/humour/carproblems.txt (my thoughts follow): For those of us who understand that the obvious is not always the solution, and that the facts, no matter how implausible, are still the facts ... A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors: "This is the second time I have

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