Subject: Re: Engineering Envy [was: Re: CL and UML] From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 10:06:45 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3203921203733271@naggum.net> * David Thornley > If you find that buying a lottery ticket gives you pleasure equal > to the value of the ticket, then it is rational to buy it. : > And, no, people aren't rational. It's hard to understand why some > people like doing the things they do, but they do like it, and > therefore it's rational for them to spend some money on it. "Rational" and "agrees with me" are two very different things. Most people have different premises, personal experiences and values, and also different goals and self-esteem, so they go about them differently. Given all these factors, most people _do_ behave rationally, but not necessarily according to somebody elses set of premises, experiences, values, goals, and self-esteem. If you ask people "what made that a rational thing for you to do" instead of exclaiming "that's irrational", about 95% of the people you ask think you said "that's irrational" in a polite way because they are taught that politeness is a much, much higher value in society than intelligence (which is rational only if people are _immensely_ stupid), but the remaining 5% manage to think about what they did and actually give an intelligent answer. You will never find those 5% if _your_ premise is that (other) people are not rational. #:Erik -- Travel is a meat thing.