STL comments on Rational Parenting? - Less Wrong

18 Post author: jdinkum 08 June 2011 03:43AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 08 June 2011 06:38:20AM 13 points [-]

I did this after hearing my son getting in an argument with another child over the value of a pawn, with the other kid insisting that the pawn had zero value.

Here's a rationality lesson: settle it experimentally. Have one side play without pawns, and the other side play without a single knight.

Strive to be like Richard Feynman, who demonstrated one of the causes of the Challenger disaster on TV with a glass of ice water.

Comment author: juliawise 07 February 2012 05:55:05PM 1 point [-]

It depends on what your goal is. If your goal is to make people understand that you're right, "settling it experimentally" may work. If your goal is to get along with your classmates, shrugging it off may be the more useful reaction. If rationality makes the boy lose friends, it may not actually be rationality.