Clarica comments on Rationality Lessons Learned from Irrational Adventures in Romance - Less Wrong

54 Post author: lukeprog 04 October 2011 02:45AM

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Comment author: Clarica 03 October 2011 08:32:19PM *  2 points [-]

Can you clarify what the harm is, in her thinking 'just like a man'

Or what her thinking would actually be, if that is not what you're suggesting?

And for the record, I killed that first relationship by telling my BF that I wasn't sure I loved him anymore, but that I didn't actually want to break up. Which was totally true, and had predictable results. I turned a normal healthy and cute math-classics major/computer science nerd into a clingy and demanding person, because I didn't understand why I wasn't happier with myself. He had no recourse to any pat generalizations, like 'just like a woman'.

Comment author: RobertLumley 03 October 2011 08:56:49PM 5 points [-]

I would think that her thinking would be that if evolution made lukeprog not like me because of xyz, then it would make all men not like me because of that. I must not be a likeable person.

That would be bad.

Comment author: Clarica 03 October 2011 11:30:41PM *  2 points [-]

Well, I'm no expert on how women think, but there is no thought control.

This breakup story is so unusual in the amount of rational preparation for it, I'm sure that I would be able to see that most other men are not much like lukeprog, on that point if no other.

I am not sure there is any way to convince someone you do not want to date (at all / any longer) that they are likeable, except by proving it over time.

Comment author: dlthomas 04 October 2011 12:11:43AM 3 points [-]

Most men are not like lukeprog on that point, certainly.

However, lukeprog was not asserting that most men were like him on that point. He was asserting that evolution had contributed for his not liking her for reasons X, Y, and Z. All people are closely enough related that if that were true, then there would be a good chance that evolution had done similarly for other men. So, to the degree that she believed him, the conclusion that it likely applied to other men would follow more strongly than without his assertion.

Comment author: Clarica 04 October 2011 12:32:03AM 3 points [-]

You make a good point, but I doubt she believed his assertion for long, if at all. Though it probably offended her.

I am trying to suggest that lukeprog's assertions about why he didn't feel like he liked her the right amount any more are totally irrelevant to her reaction. Their accuracy is, in fact, arguable.

Evolution, as it applies to men, suggests that just often enough, some of them will try to impregnate someone. Cross-cultural standards of physical beauty in women suggest who most men are most likely to try to approach. This is statistical. "Who wants to date ME" is personal, and there is no proof other than experience.

The fact that he didn't feel like he liked her the right amount to date her anymore is the unarguable point, and there is no way of getting around that.

She sounds like a normal girl and probably had a normal amount of disappointment over the breakup, and maybe an above-average amount of resentment at the suggestion that she might not be as evolutionarily attractive as the next girl.

Comment author: lessdazed 04 October 2011 01:24:50AM 0 points [-]

I must not be a likeable person.

He should have started with the mind projection fallacy.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 04 October 2011 05:24:45AM 18 points [-]

Luke will never be able to break up with any future girlfriends because it would require too many preliminaries before he could even start the sequence which would explain why they should break up.

Comment author: lukeprog 06 October 2011 02:27:01AM 11 points [-]

...says the only person who required more buildup to discuss metaethics than I did.

I have not tired of these jokes, but: actually, 'breaking up' rationalist-to-rationalist is pretty easy and painless in my (limited) experience.

Comment author: wedrifid 04 October 2011 05:57:36AM 1 point [-]

And the more time he spends with more and more girlfriends the more he will learn about relationships and the harder it will be for him to break up with them. It's pretty much an Unfriendly and Artificial Breakup Conversation FOOM.

Comment author: lessdazed 04 October 2011 05:35:53AM -2 points [-]