Lumifer comments on Open Thread, Jul. 27 - Aug 02, 2015 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: MrMind 27 July 2015 07:16AM

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Comment author: Lumifer 27 July 2015 05:59:19PM 3 points [-]

It's a perennial problem. My method which kinda-sorta works is to get very, very specific up to and including describing which varieties you do NOT want. It works only kinda-sorta because it tends to focus people on edge cases and definition gaming.

If you can extend the question into a whole conversation where you can progressively iterate closer to that you want, that can help, too.

Comment author: Elo 28 July 2015 12:06:11AM 0 points [-]

Thanks! I am not sure if this counts as a hilarious suggestion of, "ask the wrong question on purpose to get the answer to the question you wanted to find the answer to"

I wonder how I can actually do that...