lessdazed comments on How to understand people better - Less Wrong

76 Post author: pwno 14 October 2011 07:53PM

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Comment author: TimS 12 October 2011 12:20:35AM 2 points [-]

At the level we're talking about, making a power grab seems inconsistent with attempting to understand, at least from Alice's point of view. Is she wrong?

That said, the possibility that Alice is intentionally aiming for the relationship failure mode I described above is very plausible.

Comment author: lessdazed 12 October 2011 12:35:48AM 1 point [-]

Is she wrong?

Yes. She would be correct that finding a sufficient motivation for a speech act reduces the chance each other possible motivation is intended. But there is no reason a single act couldn't have two sufficient reasons behind it.

Also, to speak of emotions being in conflict or contradicting is confusing. The actions each emotion impels might be in conflict or physically or logically impossible, but to have multiple emotions is not a mysterious paradoxical state to be in, regardless of the emotions.