Less Wrong is a community blog devoted to refining the art of human rationality. Please visit our About page for more information.

CuSithBell comments on Adopting others' opinions - Less Wrong

1 [deleted] 30 April 2012 12:30PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (30)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: CuSithBell 01 May 2012 04:28:59AM 5 points [-]

I understood it to mean an informal agreement, not an unspoken one. Googling turns up investopedia, wikipedia, and several dictionary entries, which seem to indicate that "informal" is the more common meaning.

Comment author: juliawise 03 May 2012 01:00:52PM 1 point [-]

I thought so, too. The "gentleman" part refers to trusting that everyone will adhere to the agreement rather than relying on outside enforcement. I.e. it's not a legally binding contract, but a social one.

On a side note, the phrase pushes my gender buttons and I would be happy to see some other wording used on the "about" page.

Comment author: CuSithBell 04 May 2012 03:28:46PM 0 points [-]

Under normal conditions (amongst friends) I'd interpret the phrase as part of a deliberate stylistic choice including an overt consciousness of gender issues etc., but I agree it's probably not ideal on LW. Perhaps some moderator would consider changing it (to, e.g., "informal agreement", or something more poetic along those lines)?