SarahC comments on How to always have interesting conversations - Less Wrong

45 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 14 June 2010 12:35AM

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Comment author: Wei_Dai 14 June 2010 05:20:40AM 0 points [-]

And when one of us gave a factual statement outside the others' knowledge, the other tended to accept it

But you're sure to accept a lot of false statements that way. Why are you not worried about it?

But there's something really fun about electric conversations that I think you're missing here.

Thinking about why conversations might be fun, I can see two reasons:

  1. The "game" aspect (i.e., signaling/status/alliance). I tried to explain earlier why this aspect doesn't hold much interest for me.
  2. Obtaining novel information. Once I realized how unreliable most people's beliefs are, the anxiety of accepting false information interferes too much with this "fun". Also, I can get a much bigger "information high" from reading something like this.

Is there some other element of fun conversation that I might be missing?

Comment author: [deleted] 14 June 2010 05:32:10AM 3 points [-]

I think there's a lot more to insight than true or false.

Hearing a perspective or a personal experience does broaden your knowledge. In the same way that reading fiction can be enlightening -- you are still learning, but using the part of your mental equipment designed for subconscious and tacit social exchange. In my experience, most of the occasions when I changed my mind for the better resulted from hearing someone else's point of view and feeling empathy for it.

Comment author: bogdanb 14 June 2010 10:26:26AM *  1 point [-]

Indeed. I find that often (though by no means always) it’s interesting to find out why and how someone comes to believe something that, to me, is obviously wrong. The transition between “people are mad and stupid” to “there’s method to this madness” is interesting and useful, even if it doesn’t lead to “fixing the mind” of your immediate interlocutor. At the very least, it gives you a subject to think about later, to try and find out ways of fixing the beliefs of others, in future conversations.

(I often have insights on the correct, or at least a good, way of answering a fallacy quite a while after having a conversation. I can cache them for later, and sometimes get to use them in later conversations. Gathering such pre-cached insights can make you seem deep, which at least makes people more attentive to what you say.)

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