First you must realize that you don’t understand the world. This means you cannot be perfectly well adjusted, those people understand their world very well, even if we would find flaws in their worldview. They are comfortable.
This also means you are probably having a rough time of it. That dosnt lend itself to perfect mental stability.
Then you have to seek real understanding, to cut reality at its joints, and not get stuck on partial answers. This implys a level of pedantry, probably also some education or exposure to science culture.
Does it still surprise you that the people you met are the membership?
BTW, I’m absolutely all of the above, so no judgment. You’ve got a choice, pleasent and easy or interesting, take your pick.
I didn’t necessarily find it surprising, just saddening. But also I disagree with your conclusion: some people at the meetup were perfectly pleasant to talk to, so empirically, there can’t really be that strong of a guarantee that Rationalism implies Spockishness.
I think I spot some of the mistakes in your reasoning: for one, I don’t think pedantry is the same as real understanding. When I said “pedantic”, I meant something like “too nitpicky about words”. Even if your goal is to achieve real understanding, it doesn’t serve you well to be too nitpicky; it would be better to be the right amount of nitpicky. I would also describe myself as depressed and poorly-adjusted, but I think I’m good at socializing. I ended up making the whole group laugh a few times one of the recent times I went.
(I’ve also been guilty of all the sins myself at one point or another, so I don’t mean to put myself above it all either, but I think I do them a lot less nowadays than the people I’m complaining about, so I think it’s fair to use myself as an illustration of the fact that it’s doable.)
I was making a tendency argument rather than a 100% of everyone sort of thing. I mean you’ve noticed it, I’ve noticed it and both of us would classify ourselves as hitting some of those notes. You even (not wrongly) were pedantic about my definition of pedantry. Gotta be a sign
Think of how you find rationality.
First you must realize that you don’t understand the world. This means you cannot be perfectly well adjusted, those people understand their world very well, even if we would find flaws in their worldview. They are comfortable.
This also means you are probably having a rough time of it. That dosnt lend itself to perfect mental stability.
Then you have to seek real understanding, to cut reality at its joints, and not get stuck on partial answers. This implys a level of pedantry, probably also some education or exposure to science culture.
Does it still surprise you that the people you met are the membership?
BTW, I’m absolutely all of the above, so no judgment. You’ve got a choice, pleasent and easy or interesting, take your pick.
I didn’t necessarily find it surprising, just saddening. But also I disagree with your conclusion: some people at the meetup were perfectly pleasant to talk to, so empirically, there can’t really be that strong of a guarantee that Rationalism implies Spockishness.
I think I spot some of the mistakes in your reasoning: for one, I don’t think pedantry is the same as real understanding. When I said “pedantic”, I meant something like “too nitpicky about words”. Even if your goal is to achieve real understanding, it doesn’t serve you well to be too nitpicky; it would be better to be the right amount of nitpicky. I would also describe myself as depressed and poorly-adjusted, but I think I’m good at socializing. I ended up making the whole group laugh a few times one of the recent times I went.
(I’ve also been guilty of all the sins myself at one point or another, so I don’t mean to put myself above it all either, but I think I do them a lot less nowadays than the people I’m complaining about, so I think it’s fair to use myself as an illustration of the fact that it’s doable.)
I was making a tendency argument rather than a 100% of everyone sort of thing. I mean you’ve noticed it, I’ve noticed it and both of us would classify ourselves as hitting some of those notes. You even (not wrongly) were pedantic about my definition of pedantry. Gotta be a sign