Relsqui comments on Defecting by Accident - A Flaw Common to Analytical People - Less Wrong

86 Post author: lionhearted 01 December 2010 08:25AM

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Comment author: shokwave 06 December 2010 02:36:50PM 2 points [-]

If you're a mapmaker, being purely descriptive rather than prescriptive is the whole point.

Indeed, excellent counter-example. I was wrong to say there is no point in being descriptive.

If you mean that it's definitely more useful for people to behave in the way you prefer, you have not yet convinced me of that.

I am not sure that it is more useful. There appears, to me, to be some correlation between intelligence and blunt communication (nerds speak bluntly, mundanes politely) but that could be intelligence and contrarianism, or any other of many potential factors. I am not giving it any weight. However, I do think it's the case that it is useful for "people who behave in this way" to congregate and continue to behave in this way with each other.

That is, when their value systems are sufficiently similar in relevant areas, I can say that being more polite is an error for them. And LessWrong is one place where the value systems sufficiently coincide.

Comment author: Relsqui 06 December 2010 08:38:58PM 0 points [-]

For calibration purposes, where on that spectrum would you place the conversation we're having right now? :)

Comment author: shokwave 07 December 2010 06:27:48AM 1 point [-]

On an arbitrary scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is Crocker's Rules for everyone and 10 is horrifying, mincing politeness... 3. LessWrong on average is 3, but the good bits are 2.

Comment author: Relsqui 08 December 2010 05:38:22AM 0 points [-]

Hmm. Getting an answer forced me to figure out exactly why I was asking. ;) I guess the followup question is, where on that scale would you put the threshold for everyday, out-in-public polite conversation between neurotypical adults? That is, the expected level, below which someone would come across as rude.

Comment author: shokwave 08 December 2010 02:53:58PM *  0 points [-]

Between strangers, 7. Between acquaintances or friends, variation but it would congeal into two large groups hovering around 6 and 4.

If you want to see 9s and 10s you have to look for certain types of unstable power dynamics.

Basically, I like LessWrong's approach because it feels more like 'friendship group where politeness of 4-3 is okay' and less like 'strangers you should be polite to'.

Comment author: wedrifid 08 December 2010 05:49:03AM -1 points [-]

I guess the followup question is, where on that scale would you put the threshold for everyday, out-in-public polite conversation between neurotypical adults?

Not enough information. Are the adults male, female or mixed? How much status do they have? What national background? Polite means a very different thing here (Australia) than it does in the US for example.

Comment author: Relsqui 08 December 2010 06:20:23AM *  0 points [-]

Yeah, but the scale we're using isn't very precise. The variables you mention will move the threshold around, certainly, but not so much that shokwave can't at least give me a smallish range. We can limit it to modern, Western, and no significant status differences from each other.

Polite means a very different thing here (Australia) than it does in the US for example.

Yeah, I can tell. ;)

Comment author: wedrifid 08 December 2010 07:19:59AM *  1 point [-]

Yeah, I can tell. ;)

This kind of statement is one of the reasons I consider 'politeness' to be an almost irrelevant metric to consider when evaluating people's statements. The relationship between politeness and social 'defection' is utterly negligible.