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gjm comments on 17 Rules to Make a Definition that Avoids the 37 Ways of Words Being Wrong - Less Wrong
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Comments (23)
Eliezer never claimed that his 37 ways a definition can be bad constitute an exhaustive list of ways for definitions to be bad, still less that bad definitions are the only way to use words wrongly. In fact he said the reverse:
In response to the second of the observations (from NoahTheDuke) I see you've combined your list with two further principles: know your definitions (which are to meet your criteria) and then use words according to their definitions.
But (as your point 6 says) definitions aren't always the best way to give semantics to words, and most of the ways of abusing words have to do with things other than how we define them.
I'm bemused by this article. Is it perhaps intended as some sort of parody -- the wide-eyed cultist slightly rewording the cult leader's pronouncements and declaring that obeying these rules is the One True Guarantee Of Success? (For the avoidance of doubt, I don't regard LW as a cult or Eliezer as a cult leader, but I know some people do and if this is intended as parody then I guess that's what lies behind it.) If it's not parody, then all I can say is that it seems remarkably overoptimistic.
You missed the context, which is when someone claims "This can't be wrong." Rule #1 clearly states the definition can be wrong. On the other hand, there are different levels of wrongness. Sure, these rules are most likely wrong and incomplete, but they are more correct than having no rules at all. And the reason definitions aren't the best way to give semantics is because we already have a better semantics, namely the "similarity cluster". (Map is not the territory, etc.) But forcing someone to give a definition that follows these 17 rules gives you the similarity cluster, and avoids pretty much all of Eliezer's 37 ways of using words wrongly (See the superscripts!). There might be other ways of using words wrongly, but they're going to be either obvious or so subtle that nobody can catch them anyway.
As for why I wrote this article, it's simple: I need definitions of the things on my GTD list (in particular, I need a direct specification of what constitutes a "physical, visible action" for the next-actions list), and I recalled an EY post about definitions which was his 37 ways. But that was all about how to do it wrongly, and one of my tasks is "don't think negatively", so I rewrote it. It was and is sitting in my WhatIs:definition zim wiki page. I posted it here to get some commentary and maybe someone checking that I interpreted his points correctly, which I've been getting. (Thanks guys! :-))
First thing I did was print it on a A4 page and tape it in plain view.