“Trust”, as the word is typically used, is a… weird concept, to me. Like, it's trying to carve the world in a way which I don’t naturally carve it myself. This post is my attempt to convey what I find weird about “trust”, and what adjacent concepts I personally find more natural instead.

The Weirdness Of “Trust”

Here are some example phrases which make “trust” feel like a weird/unnatural concept to me:

“I decided to trust her”
“Should I trust him?”
“Trust me”
“They offered me their trust”

To me, the phrase “I decided to trust her” throws an error. It's the “decided” part that's the problem: beliefs are not supposed to involve any “deciding”. There's priors, there's evidence, and if it feels like there's a degree of freedom in what to do with those, then something has probably gone wrong. (The main exception here is self-fulfilling prophecy [...]

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Outline:

(00:21) The Weirdness Of “Trust”

(03:24) What's This “Trust” Thing?

(04:44) Why I Don’t Trust “Trust”

(06:32) What I Do Instead

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First published:
December 6th, 2023

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4kJTjAPrGcimfpKhj/on-trust

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“On Trust” by johnswentworth

LessWrong (30+ Karma)