I know I'm long-winded, and apologize. I'm busy, and as Pascal said, "This letter is too long, because I lacked the time to make it shorter."

I like metaphors. They're useful for illuminating things. I can go on and on about how failing the IAT doesn't make you racist because you can hold beliefs on two different levels, or I can say "It's like running away from a haunted house even if you don't believe in ghosts." I haven't formalized my intuitions on which metaphors are or aren't good yet, but I should.

IV seems plausible, but I can't think of exactly how. Sounds like it deserves its own top-level post.

I also like metaphors. I simply don't have the mental circuitry to effectively process complex, abstract topics (like LW or OB posts) without some sort of imagery I can relate it to, be it an analogy, example, picture, or whatever. It's much much easier for me to understand something if it can be imagined it as some sort of real-world situation.

I think it's important to properly craft metaphors so they illustrate the concept being described while minimizing other, tag-along concepts. But this doesn't seem like an insurmountable goal.