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WalterL comments on Rationality Quotes January 2015 - Less Wrong
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I don't try to intimidate anybody before a fight. That's nonsense. I intimidate people by hitting them.
-Mike Tyson
While a cute quote, I'm not sure it involves much (or any) rationality.
An expert declares one of his profession's social rituals to be nonsense, and explains how to get the same effect the ritual is intended to evoke through a simple physical procedure. Elegant rationalism.
Alternatively, the quote says that signaling is worthless and only the application of brute force matters. Not quite as elegant.
Alternatively, he says that he doesn't need to signal his confidence... and thereby signals confidence.
Of course, him having to actually say that signals less confidence... Say, how many turtles do you think there are on the way down? :-)
42? 3^^^3? Somewhere in there.
Well, setting aside the hipster issue of trying too hard to show how much he didn't care, thereby betraying how much he actually did care, I sense there may be a link between that statement and the nameless twelfth virtue ("Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy’s cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement"), in that, instead of making a show for the cameras before the fight, he focused on winning the fight, which was what mattered at the end of the day.
A similar example, from a Chris Farley movie:
Tommy: Let's think about this for a sec, Ted, why do they put a guarantee on a box? Hmm, very interesting.
Ted: I'm listening.
Tommy: Here's how I see it. A guy puts a guarantee on the box 'cause he wants you to fell all warm and toasty inside.
Ted: Yeah, makes a man feel good.
Tommy: 'Course it does. Ya think if you leave that box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee Fairy might come by and leave a quarter.
Ted: What's your point?
Tommy: The point is, how do you know the Guarantee Fairy isn't a crazy glue sniffer? "Building model airplanes" says the little fairy, but we're not buying it. Next thing you know, there's money missing off the dresser and your daughter's knocked up, I seen it a hundred times.
Ted: But why do they put a guarantee on the box then?
Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That's all it is. Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for right now, for your sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality item from me.