The fact that someone uses a calibration system different than yours does not make theirs "poorer" than yours.
It does, in a certain useful sense. The truth of how well a belief works is not directly accessible, so all you have is an estimate. If, after taking into account the fact that another person's belief is different, your beliefs remain different, you should expect their belief to be worse than yours (otherwise, you should just accept their belief). They should sometimes estimate that their belief is better than yours as well, at the same time. In this situation, one of you is wrong about the estimate of whose belief is more accurate, but this is similar to how one of you has a more accurate belief than the other, that is one of you is more wrong about the fact in question that the belief estimates.
Otherwise, what's to stop me from saying that "if you think it isn't rude then you're the one who's poorly calibrated"?
Suppose nothing does; even in that case it is not a relevant consideration. (In practice, it is the fact that it's already known at this point in the conversation that the argument won't be accepted by the interlocutor without additional justification.)
Well said. Then I suppose, if we want Aumanic about it, that I should ask "define your criteria for evaluating poor-ness of a calibration of rudeness" and "define what you mean by poor in the first place". Then I suppose we could dissolve the question.
This is my first attempt at starting a casual conversation on LW where people don't have to worry about winning or losing points, and can just relax and have social fun together.
So, Big Bang Theory. That series got me wondering. It seems to be about "geeks", and not the basement-dwelling variety either; they're highly successful and accomplished professionals, each in their own field. One of them has been an astronaut, even. And yet, everything they ever accomplish amounts to absolutely nothing in terms of social recognition or even in terms of personal happiness. And the thing is, it doesn't even get better for their "normal" counterparts, who are just as miserable and petty.
Consider, then; how would being rationalists would affect the characters on this show? The writing of the show relies a lot on laughing at people rather than with them; would rationalist characters subvert that? And how would that rationalist outlook express itself given their personalities? (After all, notice how amazingly different from each other Yudkowsky, Hanson, and Alicorn are, just to name a few; they emphasize rather different things, and take different approaches to both truth-testing and problem-solving).
Note: this discussion does not need to be about rationalism. It can be a casual, normal discussion about the series. Relax and enjoy yourselves.
But the reason I brought up that series is that its characters are excellent examples of high intelligence hampered by immense irrationality. The apex of this is represented by Dr. Sheldon Cooper, who is, essentially, a complete fundamentalist over every single thing in his life; he applies this attitude to everything, right down to people's favorite flavor of pudding: Raj is "axiomatically wrong" to prefer tapioca, because the best pudding is chocolate. Period. This attitude makes him a far, far worse scientist than he thinks, as he refuses to even consider any criticism of his methods or results.