Douglas_Knight comments on Eight Short Studies On Excuses - Less Wrong

210 Post author: Yvain 20 April 2010 11:01PM

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Comment author: Douglas_Knight 30 September 2010 10:31:07PM 1 point [-]

I point out that phenomenon X is bad.

You didn't just do that.
You said that the teacher's words don't match their meaning.

I do not need an explanation of the fact that human language is imprecise in general

Explanations may be a poor way of promoting beliefs, but belief in that fact would discourage your claim that the teacher's statement has a precise meaning.

I think newerspeak's take is pretty good. It quite late (and rather temporarily) that you switched from discussing lack of clarity, especially the need to learn a new idiom, to discussing what is bad about the phrasing. (except that I strongly object to newerspeak's use of "wrong phrasing.")

Comment author: komponisto 30 September 2010 11:18:05PM 0 points [-]

I point out that phenomenon X is bad.

You didn't just do that. You said that the teacher's words don't match their meaning.

I don't understand. That was the phenomenon in question.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 01 October 2010 12:58:53AM 1 point [-]

You can (like newerspeak, with the well-chosen username) think that the choice of idiom has bad consequences. I might agree, but only contingently on my political beliefs about education. But to say that an idiom is wrong is a category error.