satt comments on Open thread for December 17-23, 2013 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: ciphergoth 17 December 2013 08:45PM

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Comment author: satt 24 December 2013 02:43:30PM 3 points [-]

Cthulhu always swims left isn't an observation that on every single issue society will settle on the left's preferences, but that the general trend is leftward

Dropping the "always" might lead to less confusion on this point.

Comment author: [deleted] 24 December 2013 04:34:33PM *  5 points [-]

I only used "Cthulhu always swims left" because that is how army1987 termed it. Moldbug says "Cthulhu may swim slowly. But he only swims left."

Comment author: satt 24 December 2013 04:58:37PM 2 points [-]

That formulation has the same problem. Like "always swims left", "only swims left" suggests that every observed movement is leftwards.

Comment author: Randy_M 27 December 2013 05:32:18PM 2 points [-]

Unless there is an implicit distinction between purposeful movement, analogous to swiming, and some drift due to chance.

Comment author: satt 30 December 2013 06:13:11PM 1 point [-]

I doubt most people who read the phrase "Cthulhu only swims left" would pick up on that unspoken distinction, though I could be wrong.

Comment author: [deleted] 30 December 2013 06:47:42PM 0 points [-]

(I've corrected it now.)