Pavitra comments on Rationality Quotes: February 2011 - Less Wrong

13 Post author: gwern 01 February 2011 05:46PM

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Comment author: Pavitra 02 February 2011 07:33:07PM 6 points [-]
Comment author: Wei_Dai 02 February 2011 07:55:40PM *  8 points [-]

That's true if the only benefit of proofreading is finding misspellings. But you should be proofreading to find errors of expression in general, and the optimal amount of proofreading for that may imply that you find and fix all misspellings.

Comment author: false_vacuum 04 February 2011 12:23:09AM 0 points [-]

That may be good advice for most people. (Or maybe not.) But me, I'm a chronic floccinaucinihilipilificationist. (It's one of my more endearing traits.) And no, I don't use a spellchecker. I don' need no steenkeeng spellchecker.

Comment author: CronoDAS 04 February 2011 02:36:44AM 5 points [-]

But me, I'm a chronic floccinaucinihilipilificationist.

You routinely estimate things as valueless?

Comment author: false_vacuum 04 February 2011 04:54:59PM 0 points [-]

Oops. I said I knew how to spell it, not what it means. ('If you never misuse a word, you're spending too much time second-guessing yourself/reading the dictionary'?) For some reason I thought 'floccinaucinihilipilification' meant 'nitpicking'. Probably I inferred its meaning incorrectly from the context in which it appeared; that was my standard failure mode, during the era when I assume I picked up that word. (In fairness to my child-self, it was before widespread internet access--but not dictionaries.)

Also, I think I was suffering from some kind of localised cognitive impairment when I wrote that comment (sleep deprivation, perhaps). It strikes me as pretty boorish now, as well as incorrect.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 04 February 2011 07:11:32PM 3 points [-]

You may have been misled by a Robert Heinlein novel where the soi-disant genius narrators agree that that's what the word means. ('Number of the Beast,' I think.)

Comment author: false_vacuum 05 February 2011 01:05:32AM 1 point [-]

I believe you are correct.

Comment author: false_vacuum 04 February 2011 05:28:39PM 1 point [-]

Motivated cognition. It's such a good word to show off with. (At least, it would be if it meant what I thought it meant.) In fact, I'm sure I've looked it up before. Maybe this time I can remember permanently.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 07 February 2011 12:27:05AM 0 points [-]

Do mean you're sesquipedalian?

Comment author: false_vacuum 07 February 2011 10:01:53PM 0 points [-]

No, but I am.