SilasBarta comments on How to deal with someone in a LessWrong meeting being creepy - Less Wrong

16 Post author: Douglas_Reay 09 September 2012 04:41AM

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Comment author: SilasBarta 08 September 2012 08:52:12PM 5 points [-]

No, I am not saying that being a mind reader is required. Obviously we use physical and verbal cues.

Okay, but then why do you assume the problem is that the person doesn't know X is wrong, rather than that the person misread the cues, and thus diagnose the problem with long expositions of "don't do X" rather than "hey, here's how to read cues better"?

More importantly, why do so many people respond as you did, despite it being about as helpful as "The problem is that you need to sell non-apples!"

Comment author: Furslid 08 September 2012 09:18:47PM 0 points [-]

Of course I do try to help people read cues better. However, the problem is behavior. Misreading cues can lead to bad behavior, but someone can know they are making someone else uncomfortable and still act that way. I make no assumption about why someone does something. I only ask that they stop.

My point were that accepting creepiness is not cool and that low status is not what makes the behavior wrong. They were not meant to help people avoid being creepy, and naturally are not helpful.