Scottbert comments on Rationality Quotes Thread June 2015 - Less Wrong

7 Post author: Gondolinian 31 May 2015 02:12AM

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Comment author: Scottbert 05 June 2015 04:13:20AM *  -1 points [-]

(In a supervillain prison, new inmate Sonic (not that one) has just announced he'll kill the others for fun.)

Martial artist inmate: "You seem pretty !@#$ing confident. If you wanna rise up in rank in this prison full of monsters, you'll have to beat me first."

Martial artist inmate: "Let me tell you this in advance. I'm a kenpo practitioner. I'm probably the first and last guy to ever rob a bank unarmed."

Sonic: "Doesn't mean $#!@ if you got caught though."

--One-Punch man Vol 4 extra

Comment author: Scottbert 05 June 2015 06:49:27AM 2 points [-]

What's wrong with it? Too vulgar? Too vague?

Struck me as an example of failing to update after testing beliefs -- the criminal martial artist believed he was so strong, but he still was defeated -- and yet now he assumes he is unbeatable.

Or perhaps a sort of villainous mirror of heroic responsibility -- All the excuses in the world don't matter if you failed to actually get away with your villainous plan.

Comment author: Romashka 05 June 2015 05:28:04PM 4 points [-]

In a prison for supervillains, everyone is equally caught, so the MA probably has updated on Sonic being a loser, too. (Although the real question is why the MA reveals even that much about himself - what if he plans to win without kenpo.)

Comment author: ChristianKl 07 June 2015 02:13:17PM 1 point [-]

What's wrong with it? Too vulgar? Too vague?

It's not interesting.

Comment author: Unknowns 05 June 2015 07:52:07AM 0 points [-]
Comment author: gwern 02 July 2015 03:50:16PM 1 point [-]

Charitably, it may be because of its superhero/supervillain setting. In real life, bank robbers seem to be commonly, or maybe even usually unarmed; they don't need to be armed because tellers always have instructions to cooperate, and being armed raises the legal penalties significantly while increasing the odds of something going wrong. (To give an example, today I was reading an IAmA with a bank robber on Reddit. He didn't carry any weapons except a hammer, in case the banks ever locked their (glass) doors while he was leaving, which one bank did try on him.)