Vaniver comments on The Importance of Self-Doubt - Less Wrong

23 Post author: multifoliaterose 19 August 2010 10:47PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (726)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: wedrifid 20 August 2010 10:57:37AM 2 points [-]

I hope that the double negative in the last sentence was an error.

Interesting. I don't claim great grammatical expertise but my reading puts the last question at reasonable. Am I correct in inferring that you do not believe Eliezer's usage of "I also disclaim" to mean "I include the following disclaimer: " is valid?

Regarding 'protagonist' there is some context for the kind of point Eliezer likes to make about protagonist/story thinking in his Harry Potter fanfic. I don't believe he has expressed the concept coherently as a post yet. (I don't see where you introduced the 'protagonist' word so don't know whether Eliezer read you right. I'm just throwing some background in.)

Comment author: Vaniver 28 November 2010 08:02:09PM *  1 point [-]

Am I correct in inferring that you do not believe Eliezer's usage of "I also disclaim" to mean "I include the following disclaimer: " is valid?

This question is best solved by a dictionary. "I disclaim that I am a blegg" means that I am not a blegg; "Disclaimer: I am a blegg" means that I am a blegg. The use of disclaimer in the second statement is describing the following statement: "I am making a claim that denies something: I am a blegg."

Take home message: Eliezer's double negative means his post has the opposite effect of what I hope he intended.