“Don’t Overdose Locally Beneficial Changes” by Mateusz Bagiński

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Recorded28 Mar 2026

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If you are very overweight, then you should aim to cut down your daily caloric intake. This doesn't mean the optimal daily caloric intake is zero. If you are very underweight, then you should aim to ramp up your daily caloric intake. This doesn't mean the optimal daily caloric intake is infinity. In general, if something is good to do some amount in some context, this doesn't mean that you should go as all-in on it as you can possibly manage. The utility of a change is context-dependent, and as you apply more of the change, the context also changes, and the marginal utility of the change might change along with the changed context (up or down). ... This seems dead obvious, but I've been noticing various places to which this dead obvious point applies, but where many people seem to apply "seems good so far, so let's go all in" regardless. For example: It's good to pull the mind's brakes, but it doesn't mean it's good to just stop it. Some currents of thought latch onto the fact that certain changes to one's mind are clearly generally mostly beneficial and extrapolate maximally, proclaiming that the state of mind [...] The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: March 28th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fRSz8gJMsSwp9xDZY/don-t-overdose-locally-beneficial-changes --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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