Indeed, I had the same thoughts but didn’t type them up

IIRC however I heard it said that the Y2K bug didn’t cause serious problems even in countries where there wasn’t much effort to deal with it, and hence the doomsayers’ predictions were exaggerated (in that much lesser mitigation efforts would have served almost as well). I don’t know if this is true though

Great post. I know lots of classical musicians but never heard of this dynamic before.

I suspect there may be something similar with opera singers (of whom I know hardly any), because unlike other classical musicians (and other singers), who are generally nice friendly low-ego people, opera singers reportedly really are vain prima donnas obsessed with their image and beating everyone else, hence likely to be major sufferers of this syndrome. 

Sure. I found one for my parents, who seems honest and gave no more advice than necessary. I suspect honest financial advisers are often individuals or small practices rather than larger firms.

(In the UK, financial advisers are (now) heavily regulated - you can’t just call yourself one.)

Re doctors, in the UK I suspect a key distinction is between NHS (state-funded) vs private patients. The NHS pays them reasonable salaries, but consultants (senior doctors) can earn far more from private patients and tend to have a mixture of both. I suspect they treat NHS patients as fulfilling their moral duty, and private patients as a cash cow (especially as their fees are usually paid by insurance companies) - giving unnecessary treatment to rich people. In my limited experience of private doctors they barely tried to disguise this attitude towards me.

I think honest financial advisors earn a decent living in the UK. The situation changed radically after the 2009 financial crash as high commissions on investments rightly became illegal, removing the main corrupt incentive. Before this happened and when I was less savvy, I certainly got ripped off this way.

I suspect the generational difference may be age as much as generation. Older tradespeople may have accumulated savings, so less need to earn lots, and have matured in their attitudes towards customers as people.

Slightly relatedly, a couple of times in my life I’ve had a dream in which I’m involved in a very witty conversation, including clever setups and so-on that could only have been pre-scripted (as in a sitcom), not thought up on the spot. (And I am not a witty conversationalist, so would not be able to do this myself.)

I’ve never recalled the details, so it could well be that these conversations were lame and just seemed witted and ingeniously scripted at the time.

However I did once dream a joke, which on awakening I realised was original and quite clever, albeit dry and unfunny. Suggesting that spontaneously witty dreams might be more possible, even from me.

(FWIW the dream joke was this: “Why did Boris Johnson stand for mayor? Because he wanted greater London authority.” (Boris Johnson was mayor of London before becoming prime minister, and Greater London Authority was the name of the council.))

Indeed, and sometimes two moves will have the same expected value (of material etc) but different standard deviations. If you’re losing, you should go for the more chaotic one, which gives you more chance of a surprise recovery. Similarly ‘desperado’ behaviour in other contexts. 

Some languages allow or even require suffixes on verbs indicating how you know what you’re stating (a grammatical feature called ‘evidentiality’) - eg ‘I heard that X’, ‘I suppose that X’.

I suspect this is epistemically good for speakers of such languages, forcing them to consider the  reasons behind every statement they make. Hence I find myself adding careful qualifications myself, e.g. ‘I suspect’ (as above), ‘I read that’, etc.

I’ve belatedly realised that a lot of professionals - maybe even the majority - are somewhat corrupt. Doctors, financial advisers, lawyers, architects, etc. will give incorrect advice, treatment and so on purely in order to extract more money from you. For example, by giving unnecessary blood tests, recommending a high-commission investment, stringing out a legal case instead of trying to settle it, using an expensive builder with whom they have a cosy relationship.

Indeed it’s unusual to find a professional acting for you in a way that is clearly against their own financial interests, eg by trying to save you money. Fortunately I reckon customers notice when this happens, so these unusually honest professionals acquire a good reputation (if they are also competent). Which serves them quite well, as people want to keep giving them work - if their rates are reasonable - and recommend them to others.

In my 20s I was happy to pay a lot to get advice from an expert, reckoning that you get what you pay for, so paying more gets you better advice. But that’s only partly true. With a dishonest expert, you’ll probably end up with a good result, but via a circuitous route you will overpay for - extra for their expertise, plus extra for their particular way of ripping you off.

That said, I suspect this corruption is more common in mediocre professionals, who unlike experts find it harder to earn a lot by honest work. But I have encountered dishonest experts too.

The only way of avoiding all this is for the professional’s incentives to be aligned with yours, which is often impossible, particularly due to the standard charging structures of many professions (eg per hour, or % of your spend, rather than on results), which create perverse incentives that they have no interest in changing. (Not long ago I abandoned an architect who refused to charge for his input other than as a % of building cost, while trying to interest me in absurdly expensive stairs, getting his carpenter friend to quote double normal price for windows, meanwhile assuring me he was from a humble, honest family etc.)

Until I realised all the above recently (in my 50s!) I had assumed, as many do, that dodgy behaviour was unusual in middle class professions, and was instead associated with plumbers, builders, car mechanics and (in the UK anyway) real estate agents. But now I am suspicious of anyone who charges money for services.

It’s a shame.

I for one would find it helpful if you’d explain the meaning of the term ‘high-actuation’, not just give examples. ‘Actuation’ being an unfamiliar/unclear term to me.