From e525d352f5b2eca56e411a2f6e2717ca9c692a3c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Zack M. Davis" Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2026 17:11:28 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] "'So You Don't'": replace romance example with second Atlas scene --- content/drafts/so-you-dont-trust-me.md | 18 ++++++++---------- 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-) diff --git a/content/drafts/so-you-dont-trust-me.md b/content/drafts/so-you-dont-trust-me.md index 1309e3e..e2444fe 100644 --- a/content/drafts/so-you-dont-trust-me.md +++ b/content/drafts/so-you-dont-trust-me.md @@ -30,18 +30,16 @@ There is a crucial asymmetry. Owners of sick cats would prefer that the insuranc ---- -Or imagine a woman and a man early in a romantic relationship. After a few dates, the initial chemistry is starting to fade; the woman is beginning to act more withdrawn. Although perhaps not being the most emotionally intelligent of his kind, even this man can tell that something is off. +Sometimes, there's nothing you can say. Earlier in _Atlas Shrugged_, Ellis Wyatt confronts Dagny Taggart, Operating Vice-President of the Taggart Transcontinental railroad. A competing railroad that Wyatt depends upon has just been strangled by anti-competitive regulation, and Wyatt has come to Dagny (as "the only one who's got any brains in this rotten outfit") to deliver an "ultimatum." If Taggart Transcontinental expects to profit from the lack of competition without providing reliable transportation, Wyatt will exact revenge: "it is now in your power to destroy me; I may have to go; but if I go, I'll make sure that I take all the rest of you along with me." Dagny is pained to be so distrusted by Wyatt—the regulatory capture wasn't her doing—but knows better than to object: -Being perhaps not the most emotionally intelligent, he decides to use his words. "Am I doing something wrong? Tell me how I could be a better boyfriend to you. If it's a skill issue, maybe I can learn," he says. +> Somewhere within her, under the numbness that held her still to receive the lashing, she felt a small point of pain, hot like the pain of scalding. She wanted to tell him of the years she had spent looking for men such as he to work with; she wanted to tell him that his enemies were hers, that she was fighting the same battle; she wanted to cry to him: I'm not one of them! But she knew that she could not do it. She bore the responsibility for Taggart Transcontinental and for everything done in its name; she had no right to justify herself now. +> +> Sitting straight, her glance as steady and open as his, she answered evenly, "You will get the transportation you need, Mr. Wyatt." +> +> She saw a faint hint of astonishment in his face; this was not the manner or the answer he had expected; perhaps it was what she had not said that astonished him most: that she offered no defense, no excuses. He took a moment to study her silently. Then he said, his voice less sharp: "All right. Thank you. Good day." -She hesitates, struggling to find the words for something that would prefer to remain implicit. Eventually she says, "I learned from a previous relationship not to teach people how to tell me things I want to hear." - -Even he can understand that. "I respect your security posture," he says. - -Because what else could he do? Even if it stings to be so distrusted, it wouldn't make sense for him to angrily snap, "so you don't trust me?" She doesn't—but he knows that the reason she doesn't isn't an indictment of his soul, but rather has to do with the distribution of souls that look the same as him from the outside. In this world (and in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness), there are a lot of men who are happy to act however they need to in order to convince a woman to sleep with them, with no intention of being faithful to her. A man who does intend to be faithful can't ask for feedback because of the adverse selection problem where the fact of asking implies that it's less safe for her to answer in expectation (because there are a greater number of unfaithful men who could also use the answer). - -That is, unfaithful men face a greater fraction of possible worlds in which scrutiny turns up a dealbreaker, so scrutiny decreases the expected value of the relationship more for unfaithful men than faithful men. As a corollary, faithful men are willing to accept more scrutiny rather than insisting on being trusted right away. (Merely refraining from snapping would also be cheap for the unfaithful man; the expensive part is the opportunity cost of sticking around while being scrutinized and distrusted.) It would be better for both the woman and the faithful man if no scrutiny had to be applied, but the woman can't do that, because then an unfaithful man would take advantage of her. +The reason Dagny can't plead innocence or take offense is because, as a honest executive trapped in a pooling equilibrium with corrupt ones, she can see that the words of someone in her position are cheap talk that isn't credible to Wyatt. Not getting defensive about the accusation isn't much evidence—a corrupt executive could emit the same cheap assurance—but being touchy about it would be discrediting, because only a corrupt executive has an incentive to try to discourage the scrutiny that would separate the types. Dagny's non-defensiveness can't itself win Wyatt's trust, but it's enough to slightly soften Wyatt's aggression, because it at least clarifies that she knows that the ultimate test will be whether the trains actually run. ---- -And that's why honest people are never touchy about the matter of being trusted. They know that in order to distinguish themselves from dishonest people, they have to pay a price that's too expensive for dishonest people to pay. Sometimes the price might be very expensive, but it's the only way things could be. (The hidden Bayesian structure of the universe is not kind.) Those who try to wriggle out of paying the price should understand what signal they're sending. +And that's why honest people are never touchy about the matter of being trusted. They know that in order to distinguish themselves from dishonest people, they have to pay a price that's too expensive for dishonest people to pay. Those who try to wriggle out of paying the price should understand what signal they're sending. -- 2.53.0