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army1987 comments on LW Women Entries- LW Meetups - Less Wrong Discussion

8 [deleted] 20 April 2013 04:52PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 21 April 2013 09:23:10AM -2 points [-]

Most likely, the guy wasn't thinking that hard and was just flapping his mouth to make conversation.

Intent! It's fucking magic! (SCNR.)

Comment author: buybuydandavis 21 April 2013 11:03:19AM *  4 points [-]

Yes, but someone could write the same thing about offense.

Comment author: [deleted] 21 April 2013 01:47:39PM *  1 point [-]

Of course.

The point is, certain bad things can only happen if both parties in an interaction fail to abide by Postel's law, so if such a thing happens to me, I don't get to chide the other party for violating Postel's law, because so did I.

Comment author: buybuydandavis 21 April 2013 10:00:48PM 3 points [-]

Postel's law - love it! Just talking with the roommate the other day about why we get along so well. Postel's law is the perfect summary:

TCP implementations should follow a general principle of robustness: be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robustness_Principle

In my own mind I've always named this "Two Way Slack", but never had such a concise formulation before. Thanks!

But I disagree with your comment a bit, at least in the general human case. Slack on both ends tolerates some deviation from Postel's law. You get very robust when both sides observe it, still some robustness without it, but there's still always the potential for failure.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 22 April 2013 01:28:37AM 2 points [-]

That assumes neither party is actively malicious. If one of the parties is in fact malicious abiding by Postel's law makes it more likely that you can be hacked.

Comment author: buybuydandavis 28 April 2013 10:45:18PM 0 points [-]

Yeah, setting the prior toward good will, which seems the proper course in a social get together. There are predators out there, and there are dicks, but better to have a fairly high bar before assuming either in that context, IMO.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 29 April 2013 05:40:24AM 1 point [-]

The question is how much damage can improperly trusting someone cause. In particular the woman in the OP could reasonably be described as ideologically driven.

Comment author: buybuydandavis 29 April 2013 06:34:48AM 0 points [-]

Yeah. Alone in a parking garage with someone - don't extend that trust so easily. Though I'd say it's easy to be paranoid, for me at least, and the expected cost of fear is likely greater than the expected cost from violated trust. A woman could not trust the guy from the meeting who offers to walk her to her car, thereby being alone should someone else be there. There is a safety cost in not trusting people. And just a cost in lost opportunities of connection with others.

In particular the woman in the OP could reasonably be described as ideologically driven.

I have some suspicions of that on my part as well. I'm trying to extend her a little trust, and take her at her word in her latest update.

Comment author: drethelin 21 April 2013 10:09:20AM -1 points [-]

When talking about transphobia intent is the very last fucking thing you should be insulting.