You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

Vaniver comments on The rational rationalist's guide to rationally using "rational" in rational post titles - Less Wrong Discussion

64 Post author: Vaniver 27 May 2012 07:13PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (51)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Vaniver 30 May 2012 01:58:40AM 0 points [-]

I object to that message's delivery, which seems to me to imply that an acceptable reaction to those who make that mistake are, "That was so stupid, I'm not even going to explain why you're wrong. Just do what I say." That they're worth little enough to the community as to make them acceptable targets of public ridicule. If I had made the mistake, I would feel alienated by this.

That is one reason to be short. I also use brevity when I trust someone to understand a short message, because in that case a long message implies that they couldn't understand the short message.

I hoped that the title would serve as the explanation, as it's a reductio ad absurdum.