Reliable competence arises from knowing one’s own limits

Evidence

This essential fluidity of our boundaries further implies that we also know our boundaries as such—first the individual and then in general. For only whoever stands outside his boundary in some sense knows that he stands within it, that is, knows it as a boundary. Kaspar Hauser did not know that he was in prison until he came into the open and could see the walls from without. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 787 (#expands, via linked claim)

In psychology, self-delusion and self-deception describe a temporal space of uncertainty, with the inference “that the person ‘knows’ and ‘does not know’ at the same time.” Self-deception, then, is an assessment about the self-knowledge of others. It is also an evaluation that may be made about one’s own past actions but not made in situ, not in the active voice, about one’s present self. Others describe it as “a suspension in the normal objective interest in reality,” what one feels and believes “at the edge of awareness.” In this frame, self-deceptive constructions are “not judgments of reality” but actions done unknowingly to convince oneself. Sartre rejects both the Freudian frame and the divided self on which it rests. We constantly believe and disbelieve the same propositions simultaneously, he argues. Rather than acting ignorantly, “We must know the truth very exactly, in order to conceal it” more carefully from ourselves. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1397 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Perhaps, Christiano believes, this very same schema—what he calls “iterated distillation and amplification”—can be used to develop systems with complicated judgment, beyond, and yet aligned with, our own. … We might ask one copy of our system to give us an assessment of expected wait times. We might ask another to give us an estimated budget. A third we might ask for a report about accessibility. We, as the “boss,” would make the final determination—“amplifying” the work of our machine subordinates. Those subordinates, in turn, would “distill” whatever lessons they could from our final decision and become slightly better urban planners as a result: faster-working in sum than we ourselves, but modeled in our own image. We then iterate, by delegating the next project to this new, slightly improved version of our team, and the virtuous circle continues. — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 1069 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Self-knowledge of one’s limits requires a vantage point outside them — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 787; Self-deception requires precise knowledge of the truth being concealed, not ignorance — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1397; Iterated distillation and amplification can build judgment beyond our own — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 1069 (+1 more)

Related

• Self-knowledge of one’s limits requires a vantage point outside them (similarity 0.85)
• The self discovers itself only in situation and must alone sustain all values (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Self-knowledge of one’s limits requires a vantage point outside them #expands (0.86) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 787
• Self-deception requires precise knowledge of the truth being concealed, not ignorance #contradicts (0.72) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1397
• Iterated distillation and amplification can build judgment beyond our own #qualifies (0.72) — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 1069