rebellionkid comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 9 - Less Wrong

10 Post author: Oscar_Cunningham 09 September 2011 01:29PM

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Comment author: Sarokrae 25 September 2011 07:17:37PM 4 points [-]

Well, these days college intake is fairly mixed up among different personalities and backgrounds. Taking Cambridge, most people jokingly hates St John's and think Homerton are less intelligent. The rivalries probably stemmed from some historical background though.

But really, just grouping people randomly is enough for some hostility. We only don't actually hate each other because we have to work together sometimes.

Comment author: rebellionkid 28 September 2011 12:33:17AM 0 points [-]

A lot of the "hate" between colleges is perpetuated in the same way as most Cambridge traditions. Freshers read on wikipedia what Cambridge traditions are and then emulate them. There is belief in belief that people from St Johns are horrible but not much more.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 28 September 2011 03:21:38AM 4 points [-]

Well, these traditions somehow propagated before the internet.

Comment author: TobyBartels 28 September 2011 05:44:26AM 4 points [-]

In 1993, when I matriculated at Caltech (whose House system Wikipedia claims is based on Cambridge's college system), we got a handbook (the little t) with all of the traditions in it.

Comment author: Sarokrae 28 September 2011 08:17:07AM 1 point [-]

That's pretty much the way Hogwarts works, right?