komponisto comments on SotW: Be Specific - Less Wrong

37 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 03 April 2012 06:11AM

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Comment author: komponisto 08 April 2012 07:47:41PM 0 points [-]

at the cost of straying from your TRUE reasons for liking/disliking...For example, maybe you really like Movie A just because you found it entertaining

That doesn't count as a true reason. In fact, it is no more than a restatement of the fact that you like it. If you didn't find it entertaining, then that means you found it boring, which is incompatible with liking it. (Can you imagine anyone saying "I found this movie boring, but I liked it anyway?")

To say "I just found it entertaining" as an answer to the question of why one likes something is not an honest-but-unspecific answer; it is an outright dodge.

(If anything, it's a weaker statement than saying you like it, because one could conceivably dislike something despite not being bored by it.)

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 11 April 2012 12:56:30AM 1 point [-]

Good point. Replace "It was entertaining" with "It had flashy action scenes".

Comment author: TheOtherDave 09 April 2012 04:19:56PM 0 points [-]

Can you imagine anyone saying "I found this movie boring, but I liked it anyway?"

I felt this way about Brokeback Mountain, IIRC.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 14 April 2012 04:53:03AM 0 points [-]

Oh, and Waiting for Godot. Which I saw as a play, not a movie, but the principle is the same.

Comment author: MixedNuts 09 April 2012 03:32:16PM 0 points [-]

Can you imagine anyone saying "I found this movie boring, but I liked it anyway?"

Yes. Me and most romance novels, for example.