arundelo comments on Rationality Quotes August 2014 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: RolfAndreassen 04 August 2014 03:12AM

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Comment author: arundelo 04 August 2014 10:33:02PM 7 points [-]

The power is not in the choice of metaphor, it is in the ability to shift among metaphors. Teaching people this other metaphor [...] but not leaving them with the flexibility to move freely in and out is not having enabled them at all.

-- Kent Pitman

Comment author: arundelo 05 August 2014 12:43:40PM 8 points [-]

Elsewhere in the thread he says the following. I have corrected some typos and added emphasis.

  • I expect a firestorm of complaining over the use of the word `stack'. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. I prefer to use such metaphors because I think such abstractions give people a useful handhold when they are coming from other backgrounds. I get jumped on a lot for using a stack metaphor when talking about Scheme because people apparently think I've forgotten that it's not a strict stack; personally, I think the people who are so quick to jump on me have forgotten that even a metaphor that has a flaw can be a powerful way to reason and express even when not speaking rigorously. The remark here is intended to allow someone who is just barely reading along to confirm that something he may have strong knowledge of in another domain is in fact what is being discussed here. To not offer that handhold seems to me to be impolite.