DSimon comments on Rationality Quotes February 2012 - Less Wrong

5 [deleted] 01 February 2012 09:03PM

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Comment author: DSimon 12 February 2012 02:13:02PM 4 points [-]

Why is "artlessness" desirable? AIUI the word means "without skill".

Comment author: katydee 12 February 2012 05:35:38PM 2 points [-]

"Artlessness" has a connotation of doing something naturally/smoothly/without guile.

Comment author: fubarobfusco 12 February 2012 07:22:04PM 2 points [-]

Wiktionary gives both senses for artless. These words change sense over time, too. For instance, it's my impression that once upon a time, saying that a person's work was "artificial" was a compliment, meaning that it showed great skill (artifice). Today it would imply that it was inauthentic, contrived, or a surface imitation.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 12 February 2012 05:07:59PM 1 point [-]

I suspect that in this context it's meant to connote "attending to the task, rather than attending to your own technique for performing the task."

Comment author: dwalt75 12 February 2012 05:08:05PM -1 points [-]

Less is more.

Ockham's razor (the law of parsimony, economy or succinctness), is a principle that generally recommends that, from among competing hypotheses, selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions usually provides the correct one, and that the simplest explanation will be the most plausible until evidence is presented to prove it false.