Lapsed_Lurker comments on Don't call yourself a rationalist. - Less Wrong

16 Post author: KenChen 14 October 2011 08:26PM

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Comment author: Lapsed_Lurker 14 October 2011 10:19:31PM 2 points [-]

If you're worried about the reaction to group labels, then why not:

"I've been hanging out with some interesting people lately," ?

Of course, it's possible that whoever it is you're talking to will decide that you've just said that they're boring...

I meet a few people who apparently wilfully and repeatedly misinterpret what I'm saying, even when told that wasn't what I meant at all and I don't know how to deal with that.

Comment author: kragensitaker 21 December 2011 12:57:16AM 0 points [-]

I meet a few people who apparently wilfully and repeatedly misinterpret what I'm saying, even when told that wasn't what I meant at all and I don't know how to deal with that.

You mean like this?

"Man, that guy looks so gay, I just want to bash his fucking head in."

"My brother is gay."

"I didn't mean gay, I meant, like, gay."

Maybe you need to win their trust and improve your communication skills.

Comment author: Lapsed_Lurker 21 December 2011 01:31:20AM 0 points [-]

Not like that, at least not that I can generally detect - but I do agree that my communication skills could do with some improvement - which is odd, since I've had a 'public-facing' job for over 10 years and get a fair amount of practice talking to people and it seems that it hasn't helped :(

Comment author: kragensitaker 25 December 2011 04:46:39PM 1 point [-]

It could be that even if it doesn't seem like that to you, it sounds like that to them. Surely almost everyone has gone through lots of experiences where they interpret someone correctly to have said something offensive, at which point the offender attempts to weasel out of it; perhaps that's the template you're matching in their mind, even if it's not what you're doing. By comparison, the number of interactions where someone is trying to explain a difficult concept is pretty small, outside of certain small groups.

Comment author: lessdazed 14 October 2011 11:20:21PM 0 points [-]

I've been hanging out with some interesting people lately

equals zero minus the following:

I meet a few people who apparently wilfully and repeatedly misinterpret what I'm saying, even when told that wasn't what I meant at all and I don't know how to deal with that.

equals:

"I've been hanging out with some people lately who almost never misinterpret what I'm saying, and they change their minds when told something wasn't what I meant."

Comment author: [deleted] 17 October 2011 05:08:23PM 0 points [-]

Clever, but that category also includes people with good listening skills who are not rationalists.