SilasBarta comments on Typical Mind and Politics - Less Wrong

46 Post author: Yvain 12 June 2009 12:28PM

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Comment author: SilasBarta 12 June 2009 06:17:33PM *  6 points [-]

Not to sound vindictive, but ...

I'm frequently a victim of "your needs are uncommon, therefore no one else has to accommodate them" type reasoning.

You're also a victimizer of that type of reasoning too.

I actually don't mean this as a criticism (not completely, anyway ...) It just suggests to me that, per Yvain, we will all, to some extent, fall on both sides of that reasoning, depending on the issue, and we should watch for where we trivialize others' concerns.

Comment author: orthonormal 12 June 2009 07:45:34PM 4 points [-]

I don't think that dredging up Alicorn's comment from a distant thread in order to accuse her of hypocrisy adds anything to this exchange. If you think that a claim of uncommon needs in finding romantic partners is germane to that discussion, it would be significantly more productive and less antagonistic to link to this thread over there.

Comment author: SilasBarta 12 June 2009 07:59:59PM 7 points [-]

Did you read to the final paragraph? The point wasn't to accuse Alicorn of hypocrisy (although that was an excellent example of the general point), nor was it to point out my unusual situation (which I already did in that other thread).

The point was that people who believe that their uncommon needs are not properly accomodated do the exact same thing to others and we should account for this in our disputes with others. I did not mean to imply Alicorn was somehow alone in this double standard, and I apologize if I made it seem that way.

Comment author: Alicorn 12 June 2009 06:45:17PM 1 point [-]

It's not at all obvious to me how that comment is an instance of that reasoning.

Comment author: SilasBarta 12 June 2009 06:49:51PM *  6 points [-]

-Claim that my needs are unusual? Check.

-Claim that no one else should be doing or should have done anything different to accomodate me? Check.

Implied connection of those views? Check.

-Obviousness of how linked comment and surrounding is an instance of quoted reasoning? Check.

-Annoyingness of this style of response? Check.

Comment author: Alicorn 12 June 2009 06:53:38PM 2 points [-]

You haven't pointed out where in the comment I commit these behaviors, you've merely restated the kind of reasoning you've already accused me of.

Comment author: SilasBarta 12 June 2009 08:07:14PM *  3 points [-]

Okay, here goes (and my remark applies to several of your comments but the linked one was representative):

If you do not know any women, something is wrong. It either means that (1) you don't know anyone at all, in which case you should take care of that before "find a girlfriend" reaches the top of your list of priorities, or it means that (2) none of the men you know have introduced you to any of the women they know, which probably means something needs to be addressed on your end too, or it means that (3) the men you know themselves do not know any women, in which case something is wrong with them

There, first you identified how my situation was strange in one of three ways. Then, you listed things I should do to adapt:

If you know some women, but all the women you know are all taken or for some reason unacceptable, the odds are good that they know women who are neither taken nor unacceptable. Behave in a decent manner ...

There's nothing wrong with attempting to help with suggestions -- except for their grounding in ignorance of my situation -- but you are quite clearly saying that no one else should have done anything else accomodative on their end.

Therefore, you both claimed that my needs are unusual, and no one else needed to accomodate them.

Comment author: Alicorn 12 June 2009 08:13:13PM *  2 points [-]

Somehow, I don't think saying "You're doing everything right, your lack of success is the fault of misbehaving others, and I'll be sure to tell them so if I ever meet the people in your social circle" would have been germane or helpful. Is it possible that people in your social circle aren't giving you enough of a chance or giving you enough leeway for your quirks? Sure. That's totally possible. I can't do anything about that, so I didn't focus on it.

Secondly, I made no claims about your needs. I made statements of advice conditional on who you might or might not be acquainted with (I identified the relevant and mutually exclusive categories as: nobody, only men who haven't introduced you to any women, only men who don't know women, or some women who you find unacceptable). The only "need" that was involved was your interest in finding women who you could date, which, given the thread's context, was hardly unusual - and I never said it was!

Comment author: SilasBarta 12 June 2009 08:33:08PM 7 points [-]

The only "need" that was involved was your interest in finding women who you could date, which, given the thread's context, was hardly unusual - and I never said it was!

The unusual need was not interest in finding women, but rather, interest in finding women while not having the superabundant resources you falsely assume everyone has. Remember, your original advice was basically, "Hey, just try your luck with one of the million women who have prefiltered you and see who you're spark-y with."

a.k.a. "You can't find any bread? Well, why not just draw down your cake stockpiles?"

You didn't seem to think that people like me could exist -- the very same unfortunate premise people treat you with.

Comment author: thomblake 12 June 2009 08:10:57PM *  2 points [-]

with apologies, it gets a bit annoying constantly getting dating advice that assumes away the most critical problems, and I can't be the only one in this position.

If you do not know any women, something is wrong.

SilasBarta claimed that he has special needs that are not being accommodated by the local dating advice. Alicorn claimed that there is something wrong with SilasBarta, so there is no reason for anyone to accomodate him.

Alternate reading:

SilasBarta claimed that he has special needs that are not being accommodated by the local dating advice. Alicorn claimed that there is something wrong with SilasBarta, and suggested ways to fix it so that the local dating advice could be used.

Comment author: Alicorn 12 June 2009 08:18:19PM -2 points [-]

I made a series of "if" statements. I don't know who SilasBarta knows. I claim that something is wrong (and not necessarily "with him") if he knows exactly zero women. If he knows a nonzero number of women, the statement doesn't apply.

Comment author: SilasBarta 12 June 2009 08:36:57PM 4 points [-]

Okay, this is probably getting out of hand, but it was obvious even at the time that I didn't "know zero women".

Yes, Alicorn, it sure sucks when people don't understand your situation, doesn't it?