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shminux comments on Applied art of rationality: Richard Feynman steelmanning his mother's concerns - Less Wrong
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I am surprised by how high the parent is upvoted, given that my reading of the situation is quite different: RPF interpreted his mom's argument charitably (as in, "she may well care about random students, and if she doesn't, I certainly ought to, and I didn't think it about it until she pointed it out", the latter being admitted to in the P.S.) and then steelmanned it by carefully investigating the conditions of when TB is likely to be transmitted, then refuted it by determining that the danger of transmission to Feynman or his students would not go up from the contact as described.
Admittedly, he probably took pains to go an extra mile in addressing the argument because it was his mother's, but that does not change anything.
I don't see how this constitutes steelmanning.
If his mother's allegation is "You'll be at risk of tuberculosis," then a refutation of her argument as she presented it demands that he assess the risk of tuberculosis he'd be subjecting himself to, and demonstrate that it is in fact low.
A steelmanning of her argument would, as Luke indicated, entail addressing not only her concerns about the risk of the disease that she mentioned, but also address other hypothetical risks which would appear plausible.
I surprised too, both it and its grandparent. I think I'm right, but wow.