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SaidAchmiz comments on "Stupid" questions thread - Less Wrong Discussion

40 Post author: gothgirl420666 13 July 2013 02:42AM

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Comment author: SaidAchmiz 14 July 2013 04:22:25PM 2 points [-]

The question is how you react to that, and offering to acknowledge the presence of the other and to find out their wishes regarding the flight is the common sense thing to do.

Only for an extrovert.

In the end, even to an introvert, simply stating "Oh hello, I'm so and so, unfortunately I have a lot on my mind, I'm sure you understand" isn't outside the bounds of the reasonable. Do you disagree?

Yes.

Comment author: drethelin 14 July 2013 05:22:58PM 9 points [-]

As someone who has been "trapped" in dozens of conversations with someone seemingly nice but uninteresting it's surprisingly hard to straight up tell someone you don't want to talk to them. I

Comment author: SaidAchmiz 14 July 2013 05:29:29PM *  9 points [-]

Exactly. I would be far more ok with a social norm that condoned introducing oneself to (and starting conversations with) people on plans if there was also a social norm that condoned saying "I don't want to talk to you. Kindly go away and leave me alone." Current social norms regard this as rude. (I take it our esteemed extrovert colleagues see the problem here.)

Comment author: Error 15 July 2013 12:23:32PM 6 points [-]

Datapoint: I don't care for Achmiz's hostility but I do agree with his point here. There is no polite way to explicitly tell someone you don't want to communicate. This is a bug that should be fixed. It harms both parties; the silent one can't indicate that without paying a social cost, and the talkative one can't really be sure they're not annoying their counterpart.

(it is possible the talkative one doesn't actually care if they're annoying their counterpart. If so, fuck them.)

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