51–60 of 89 posts
Interesting how so far the comments on this story overwhelmingly agree with the article that it's not worth it to lie. Regardless of how true this point is I have to wonder whether such unanimity in the discussion might be in part because the people who found that lying works quite well for them are more reluctant to share their opinion, for obvious reasons.
This article reminded me of the "four agreements": "Be impeccable with your word. Don't take anything personally. Don't make assumptions. Always do your best." Not lying falling under the first.
I'm not sure what's included in "be impeccable with your word" that isn't also included in the more mellifluous "don't lie".
Wow - I read the article this morning, shortly before I had to present to managers on the current status of a project. Thought I'd try putting it into practice. The results: (a) I'm quite shocked at the number of (to be fair, very little) lies I would normally tell in such a situation, (b) It was weirdly relaxing being able to just sit there and tell the truth, (c) I've never received such good feedback from a presen…
That's very interesting, can you elaborate on the "small lies" you found yourself telling? (obviously without disclosing anything personal or confidential).
Other instances were based on how I felt about certain aspects of the project. e.g. Q: Do you think the remaining deliverables of the project will follow the plan? (True) A: Actually no. And here's why.
Previously I would probably just have said yes, and dealt with any upcoming issues as and when. The truthful approach led to a brief discussion about what will be different and why. Everyone now understands the issues. They're not major. Nobody died. Everyone (including me) left happy.
Lies propagate, that's what I'm saying. You've got to tell more lies to cover them up, lie about every fact that's connected to the first lie. And if you kept on lying, and you kept on trying to cover it up, sooner or later you'd even have to start lying about the general laws of thought. Like, someone is selling you some kind of alternative medicine that doesn't work, and any double-blind experimental study will confirm that it doesn't work. So if someone wants to go on defending the lie, they've got to get you to disbelieve in the experimental method. Like, the experimental method is just for merely scientific kinds of medicine, not amazing alternative medicine like theirs. Or a good and virtuous person should believe as strongly as they can, no matter what the evidence says. Or truth doesn't exist and there's no such thing as objective reality. A lot of common wisdom like that isn't just mistaken, it's anti-epistemology, it's systematically wrong. Every rule of rationality that tells you how to find the truth, there's someone out there who needs you to believe the opposite. If you once tell a lie, the truth is ever after your enemy; and there's a lot of people out there telling lies... [0]
If you haven't read "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" I highly recommend it. I've gone through the chapters that are online twice now and will probably read them all once more when the final story arch is released toward the end of the year.
One of my favorite quotes goes like this: Lies propagate, that's what I'm saying. You've got to tell more lies to cover them up, lie about every fact that's connected to the first lie. And if you kept on lying, and you kept on trying to cover it up, sooner or later you'd even have to start lying about the general laws of thought. Like, someone is selling you some kind of alternative medicine that doesn't work, and an…
One of my favorite quotes goes like this: Lies propagate, that's what I'm saying. You've got to tell more lies to cover them up, lie about every fact that's connected to the first lie. And if you kept on lying, and you kept on trying to cover it up, sooner or later you'd even have to start lying about the general laws of thought. Like, someone is selling you some kind of alternative medicine that doesn't work, and an…
The setup for the article theorizes on the cost of lying on the person's stress levels. I'm sure that's a factor, but I think that pales in comparison to the empirical evidence the author has found in her own life -- the benefit of transparency . There's an episode of How I Met Your Mother where a character always asks "Where's the poop?"[1] when she can tell someone is lying. She had a dog that always made he same f…
My friend etuttle once told me, "Lying is like taking out a loan. You will typically have to pay interest on it: remembering that you told it, and remembering who you told it to... so it's usually not worth it. But once in a while it is."
The setup for the article theorizes on the cost of lying on the person's stress levels. I'm sure that's a factor, but I think that pales in comparison to the empirical evidence the author has found in her own life -- the benefit of transparency . There's an episode of How I Met Your Mother where a character always asks "Where's the poop?"[1] when she can tell someone is lying. She had a dog that always made he same f…
Actually, I think you just suggested the power of more devious lying: If you don't want them to know about the actual poop, tell them about some _lesser_ poop (either real, but lesser; or in fact more or less imaginary), so they won't think "Where's the poop", but will think "Ah, I know where the poop is, and I can handle that poop", eliminating the uneasy feeling when someone's giving you no poop at all but you know…
You fool yourself everytime you fool others, and the lies do catch up to you, that was the point of the article.