Eric Raymond on LessWrong: All Interesting Behavior Is Overdetermined, Not Just Multicausal
esrtweet · x · 2026-11-09
A new LessWrong essay by Eric Raymond argues that "all interesting behavior is overdetermined" is a valuable heuristic. Distinguishing contributory causation (Scott Alexander's 20,000-gene model of intelligence) from overdetermination—where any one of multiple causes is individually sufficient—he warns against stopping at the first sufficient explanation and makes the case for seeking independent sufficient causes as a tool for generative understanding and error avoidance.
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