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Romashka comments on Sidekick Matchmaking - How to tackle the problem? - Less Wrong Discussion
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Suppose we live in a Nicht Watch kind of a fantasy - I actually ask you to consider it seriously, just leave Lukyanenko's specifics out as irrelevant - what would you ask a sidekick for?
In the Night Watch world, you either want to be a muggle (and hope you will not get accidentally killed by a vampire), or a very high-level good or evil mage, or work for the Inquisition. Low-level mages are just cannon fodder for the mage wars. The problem is, how do you become a high-level mage without being a low-level mage first?
In real life, I guess it means you either want to be a street-smart muggle without any political opinions or ambitions, or you want to work for KGB or its local equivalent.
In the first case, the best sidekick would be another street-smart muggle without political opinions or ambitions; and you would try to exploit the existing options to survive as conveniently as possible. In the second case, you want someone who also works for KGB, but is absolutely loyal to you.
You get born as one, of course.
Does this mean that a sidekick wouldn't be distinguishable from a servant?
Is a sidekick distinguishable from a servant?
(Is reminded about that dialogue between Mazarin and Rochefort :) in the sense that when a hero dies, there is a competent successor, yes. Also, a sidekick is not paid, except in moral fuzzies. And the servant, at the end of the day, is not obliged to be kind to the hero.
As who? As a wizard or as a muggle?
P.S. "Nicht Watch" -- translated as "No Watch" -- is a nice typo. We probably do live in such a world :-)
A mugglest muggle.
I'll take a wizard as a sidekick, then, please :-)
I am sorry, this is not what I asked.
What are you asking, then?
To solve what problem would you invite another human to your side?
I am not sure what are you getting at. If I am a muggle, I have the usual mundane muggle problems and would need help with exactly the same things as in the real world.
If, on the other hand, I'm planning to meddle in the affairs of wizards, I am not sure a (muggle) sidekick can help me with the fact that I'm crispy and good with ketchup.
Well, you see, I think the problem with Sidekick Threads is just that - people think sidekicks are a means to solve mundane muggle problems, their problems, like servants. Sidekicks are not that. They are people you trust, who agree with you that something needs doing. For example, my sister commissioned me to study roots of some plants the rhizosphere of which she wants to sieve for mites. That makes me her sidekick, because I see value in it, even if I would see more value in commissioning her to sieve mites out of my own samples.
People don't get sidekicks until a bit after they feel a visceral need to change something (which is why I think I'll quit LW soon - I don't see people who do want to change something here. (And you call us pessimists!))
Also, if the presence of actual vampires doesn't really shift your priorities much from your mundane muggle problems, then it is Lukyanenko's world, and not Tolkien's, which I consider the closer to reality and more useful parable.
Part of the problem is that there's a huge gap between the "here" and "there" of some problems. I feel a visceral need to end the suffering in North Korea. Unfortunately I don't see any effective way of achieving that, or even getting close to achieving that, other than "spreading the message."
That depends on your definition of "here". I think having the LW Slack is a change.
OK, so you see sidekicks not as servants but as comrades, brothers/sisters-in-arms who are fighting by your side for the same goal but content to accept your authority. Sure.
So, by asking about sidekicks are you really asking "What do you have a visceral need to fight for"?