Vladimir_Nesov comments on Playing the Meta-game - Less Wrong

24 Post author: Technologos 25 December 2009 10:06AM

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Comment author: Technologos 25 December 2009 04:10:43PM 1 point [-]

Blast. Not what I was going for at all.

I was trying to focus on the framing issue, to suggest that arguing for rationalist positions in the normal manner is an uphill battle and that one solution is instead to highlight the many ways in which rationalism and its consequents can concretely improve people's lives. The objective, then, would be to make people's introductions to rationalism smoother by emphasizing the light at the end of the tunnel, rather than the (substantial) amount of things they have to internalize before they can get there.

I certainly wasn't intending to flatter myself, and I'd hoped the links justified my statements about rationalism; is there a change you'd suggest that could fix that?

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 25 December 2009 04:34:59PM *  0 points [-]

I still don't understand your intended message. I know that my description doesn't reflect the idea you wanted to communicate: but it never got through, and the above comment doesn't help.

Comment author: Technologos 25 December 2009 05:15:41PM 0 points [-]

I made a couple of changes that might improve things a bit, summarizing particularly at the end.

I'm reflecting on my experience trying to bridge the inferential distance between myself and people with whom I am arguing, and I'm trying to suggest that we should re-frame our discussions with non-rationalists in a manner that shows we're on their side, that we share their goals, in order to make our contrarian positions more easily accepted.