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erratio comments on The Singularity Institute's Arrogance Problem - Less Wrong Discussion

63 Post author: lukeprog 18 January 2012 10:30PM

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Comment author: erratio 19 January 2012 09:48:12PM 6 points [-]

To repeat something I said in the other thread, truth values have nothing to do with tone. It's the same issue some people downthread have with Tim Ferriss - no one denies that he seems very effective, but he communicates in a way that gives many people an unpleasant vibe. Same goes if you communicate in a way that pattern-matches to 'arrogant'.

Comment author: lukeprog 19 January 2012 10:18:29PM 4 points [-]

Of course. That's why I said I can "smell the arrogance," and then went on to ask a different question about whether XiXiDu thought the claims were false.

Comment author: kbaxter 19 January 2012 10:57:06PM 14 points [-]

I can smell the "arrogance," but do you think any of the claims in these paragraphs is false?

When I read that, I interpreted it to mean something like "Yes, he does come across as arrogant, but it's okay because everything he's saying is actually true." It didn't come across to me like a separate question - it read to me like a rhetorical question which was used to make a point. Maybe that's not how you intended it?

I think erratio is saying that it's important to communicate in a way that doesn't turn people off, regardless of whether what you're saying is true or not.

Comment author: jmmcd 19 January 2012 11:19:46PM 8 points [-]

But I don't get it. You asked for examples and XiXiDu gave some. You can judge whether they were good or bad examples of arrogance. Asking whether the examples qualify under another, different criterion seems a bit defensive.

Also, several of the examples were of the form "I was tempted to say X" or "I thought Y to myself", so where does truth or falsity come into it?

Comment author: lukeprog 20 January 2012 12:04:13AM 14 points [-]

Okay, let me try again...

XiXiDu, those are good examples of why people think SI is arrogant. Out of curiosity, do you think the statements you quote are actually false?

Comment author: [deleted] 21 January 2012 04:41:45AM *  3 points [-]

I wonder how many of the people who think SI is arrogant and are bothered by it would consider themselves guessers and how many people who note how SI could be perceived as arrogant but aren't bothered by it would consider themselves askers.