John_Maxwell_IV comments on Is Scott Alexander bad at math? - LessWrong

31 Post author: JonahSinick 04 May 2015 05:11AM

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Comment author: JonahSinick 06 May 2015 10:40:20PM 1 point [-]

I'm knowingly breaking social norms. I reject the social norms that are in place as maladaptive, in the same way that Martin Luther King rejected social norms around segregation as maladaptive.

And no, I'm not going to apologize for analogizing myself to Martin Luther King on account of it coming across as a status grab: even if I'm totally inconsequential, I still identify with him strongly, and whatever other people think, it's not a status grab.

Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 08 May 2015 01:24:20PM *  4 points [-]

Sometimes you can make subtle changes to your wording to communicate the same facts with different status modifiers. I'll give it a shot:

If a social norm is maladaptive, sometimes breaking it, even in a brazen way, can be the best response. We've got historical examples of agitators like Martin Luther King (one of my heroes) who succeeded with this approach. But let me know if you've got any evidence that it's a bad idea.

Let me know if you thought I failed in my objective to communicate the same facts while appearing humbler :P

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