Douglas_Knight comments on Why the beliefs/values dichotomy? - Less Wrong
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Comments (153)
generalizing from fictional evidence
When I wrote that I was aware that it was a fictional account deliberately made up to illustrate a point. I didn't mention that, though, so I created fictional evidence. Thanks for flagging this, and I should be more careful!
Worse: fictional evidence flagged as nonfictional -- like Alicorn's fictional MIT classmates that time.
My what now? I think that was someone else. I don't think I've been associated with MIT till now.
MIT not only didn't accept me when I applied, they didn't even reject me. I never heard back from them yea or nay at all.
That was me.
Of course, irony being what it is, people will now flag the Alicorn - MIT reference as nonfictional, and be referring to Alicorn's MIT example for the rest of LW history :)
Attempting to analyze my own stupidity, I suspect my confusion came from (1) both Alicorn and Yvain being both high-karma contributors and (2) Alicorn's handle coming more readily to mind, both because (a) I interacted more with her and (b) the pronunciation of "Alicorn" being more obvious than that of "Yvain".
In other words, I have no evidence that this was anything other than an ordinary mistake.
I've been imagining "Yvain" to be pronounced "ee-vane". I'd be interested in hearing a correction straight from the ee-vane's mouth if this is not right, though ;) I've heard people mispronounce "Alicorn" on multiple occasions.
You mean Alicorn is a real name? I had assumed a combination of Alison and Unicorn, with symbolic implications beyond my ken.
"Ye-vane" here, with the caveat that I was quite confident that it was way off.
No, it's not a real name (as far as I know). It's a real word. It means a unicorn's horn, although there are some modern misuses mostly spearheaded by Piers Anthony (gag hack cough).
Ahh. And I've been going about calling them well, unicorn horns all these years!
I've been saying "al-eh-corn" in my mental consciousness. Also "ee-vane", which suggests my problem being less "Yvain is hard to pronounce" than "Yvain doesn't look like the English I grew up speaking".
Incidentally, I can't remember how to pronounce Eliezer. I saw him say it at the beginning of a Bloggingheads video and it was completely different from my naive reading.
"Alicorn" is pronounced just like "unicorn", except that the "yoon" is replaced with "al" as in "Albert" or "Alabama". So the I is an "ih", not an "eh", but you can get away with an undifferentiated schwa.
Thanks!
(I think that's how I was saying it, actually - I wasn't sure how to write the second syllable.)
ell-ee-EZZ-er (is how I hear it).
*checks*
Yvain's fictional MIT classmates.
I swear that wasn't on purpose.
What's fictional about that?
Ready to pony up money for a bet that I can't produce a warm body meeting that description?
I prefer not to gamble, but just to satisfy my own curiosity: what would the controls be on such a bet? Presumably you would have to prove to Knight's satisfaction that your unbelieving belief-signaler was legitimately thus.
I think my evidence is strong enough I can trust Douglas_Knight's own intellectual integrity.
Huh. My last couple of interactions with you, you called me a liar.
Okay, I found what I think you're referring to. Probably not my greatest moment here, but Is that really something you want sympathy for? Here's the short version of what happened.
You: If you think your comment was so important, don't leave it buried deep in the discussion, where nobody can see it.
Me: But I also linked to it from a more visible place. Did you not know about that?
You: [Ignoring previous mischaracterization] Well, that doesn't solve the problem of context. I clicked on it and couldn't understand it, and it seemed boring.
Me: Wait, you claim to be interested in a solution, I post a link saying I have one, and it's too much of a bother to read previous comments for context? That doesn't make sense. Your previous comment implies you didn't know about the higher link. Don't dig yourseelf deeper by covering it up.
Oh, yeah, I'd forgotten that one. Actually, I was thinking of the following week.
I just want you to go away. I was hoping that reminding you that you don't believe me would discourage you from talking to me.
That's not calling you a liar. That's criticizing the merit of your argument. There's a difference.
The link provided by Douglas seems to suggest that Douglas's accusation is false (as well as ineffective).
ET:S/petty/ineffective/
Well, what possessed you to lie to me? ;-)
j/k, j/k, you're good, you're good.
A link would be nice though.
And I believe that, even taking into account any previous mistrust I might have had of you, I think my evidence is still strong enough that I can trust you consider it conclusive.