thomblake comments on Rational Romantic Relationships, Part 1: Relationship Styles and Attraction Basics - Less Wrong

48 Post author: lukeprog 05 November 2011 11:06AM

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Comment author: thomblake 04 November 2011 07:53:04PM 2 points [-]

Should I conclude that, as a community, we've decided to stop having on-topic and anti-mind-killing norms?

Or disagree that it is off-topic or mind-killing.

Comment author: steven0461 05 November 2011 12:51:35AM 1 point [-]

Why would anyone so disagree? If this topic isn't off-topic and mind-killing, is there any topic that is?

Comment author: Emile 05 November 2011 01:01:09PM 5 points [-]

I don't find "do women dig jerks?" particularly mind-killing, or at least, not here (much less than the ethics of PUA, political parties, elections, welfare, taxes, Occupy Wall Street, race and intelligence, Israel and Palestine ...); I don't have strong opinions on the issue, and hearing someone speak on that topic doesn't allow me to categorize them into a clearly-defined group.

I can't clearly see any "sides" on the issue (two possible sides are of course "women are stupid and dig jerks so I hate them" and "anybody who criticizes women is stupid", but I'm not seeing either of those here, the sides are more "it's complicated" and "it's not that simple").

Comment author: lessdazed 05 November 2011 01:49:37PM 10 points [-]

"it's not that simple"

There's no "that" for it to be either that simple or not that simple.

(Implicit modifier A) women (implicit modifier B) dig (whatever that means exactly) jerks (whatever that means exactly).

Modifier A can be "all", or "most", or "the most attractive ones", or whatever.

Modifier B can be "most days of the week", "most years of their lives", or whatever.

"Dig" can mean "prefer ceteris paribus", "will only have one night stands with", "will stay with them even if the guy hits them", "strongly prefer at all times", "prefer for all types of relationships", or whatever.

"Jerks" can mean "people who are more assertive than average", "people who try and make them feel bad about themselves", "people who have killed a man", "people who wear motorcycle jackets", "people who frequently brag", or whatever.

"Women dig jerks" provides an opportunity to construct an obviously (or not obviously) true or false meaning to something other people say, depending on how right or wrong one wants them to be. It allows room to always easily be able to interpret an interlocutor's words to mean that they are innately evil or hopelessly misguided.

That said, people actually do disagree on the substance of the issue.

Comment author: Desrtopa 05 November 2011 01:15:06AM 2 points [-]

Why would anyone so disagree? If this topic isn't off-topic and mind-killing, is there any topic that is?

I would say yes. I mean, it's clearly on topic relative the main post, and if instrumental rationality is going to be one of the focuses of the site, then "on topic" for top level posts is necessarily going to be pretty broad.

As for mind-killing, there are certainly topics I think it's harder to hold a productive conversation on.

Comment author: steven0461 05 November 2011 02:00:53AM 5 points [-]

I think a comment can be off-topic even though it's on-topic relative to the main post and the main post is itself on-topic. I'm also worried that people are using too broad a definition of "instrumental rationality".