Burch's Law

Burch's Law (introduced here) states that

"I think people should have a right to be stupid and, if they have that right, the market's going to respond by supplying as much stupidity as can be sold."

• Burch's Law by Eliezer Yudkowsky

While Burch was referring specifically to SUV's (which he believed to be badly designed) his point carries far more generally. Examples include:

• Lotteries, which take advantage of people's inability to understand small probabilities.
• Cigarettes, which take advantage of the tendency to think about the possibility of lung cancer in far mode while thinking about potential social benefits of smoking in near mode.

A corollary of Burch's Law is that any bias should be regarded as a potential vulnerability whereby the market can trick one into buying something one doesn't really want.

ReferencesBlog posts

Overcoming Bias Articles

"I think people should have a right to be stupid and, if they have that right, the market's going to respond by supplying as much stupidity as can be sold." --Greg Burch

See Also

Footnotes

Less Wrong Articles

Other Resources

"I think people should have a right to be stupid and, if they have that right, the market's going to respond by supplying as much stupidity as can be sold." --Greg Burch

See Also

References

Footnotes

Overcoming Bias Articles

• Burch's Law by Eliezer Yudkowsky

Less Wrong Articles

Other Resources