shokwave comments on What I've learned from Less Wrong - Less Wrong

79 Post author: Louie 20 November 2010 12:47PM

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Comment author: patrissimo 15 December 2010 05:03:44AM 4 points [-]

"That's how great arguments work: you agree with every step (and after a while you start believing things you didn't originally)."

Also how great propaganda works.

If you are going to describe a "great argument" I think you need to put more emphasis on it being tied to the truth rather than being agreeable. I would say truly great arguments tend not to be agreeable, b/c the real world is so complex that descriptions without lots of nuance and caveats are pretty much always wrong. Whereas simplicity is highly appealing and has a low cognitive processing cost.

Comment author: shokwave 15 December 2010 06:54:04AM 2 points [-]

put more emphasis on it being tied to the truth rather than being agreeable.

Oh. I only agree with argument steps that are truthful.