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Gears-Level Understanding, Deliberate Performance, The Strategic Level — LessWrong

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It seems to be important to distinguish between two kinds of knowing: the knowing that comes from listening to trusted sources, and the knowing that comes from seeing why the world couldn’t possibly be any other way. Let’s imagine someone shows you a box with two gears partially sticking out of opposite sides: At first, you don’t know what will happen if the gear sticking out on the left is rotated downward. It could send the right gear downward, or it could send it upward; it could have absolutely no effect whatsoever. If the person tells you that the result will be the right gear rotating downward, you’ll either take it on faith, or you won’t, depending on how confident they seem and how much you trust them. If, on the other hand, you look inside the box yourself ... ... then you’ll gain a very different sort of confidence. It might take some work, but after a little thinking, you can know that the person’s claim is wrong. It doesn’t matter what sort of expertise they have, relativ

x Gears-Level Understanding, Deliberate Performance, The Strategic Level — LessWrong CFAR Handbook Techniques Rationality Frontpage 32 Gears-Level Understanding, Deliberate Performance, The Strategic Level by CFAR!Duncan 5th Aug 2022 5 min read 3 32 Gears-Level Understanding It seems to be important to distinguish between two kinds of knowing: the knowing that comes from listening to trusted sources, and the knowing that comes from seeing why the world couldn’t possibly be any other way. Let’s imagine someone shows you a box with two gears partially sticking out of opposite sides: At first, yo

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