Given such a confusing problem statement, what did you expect if not a confused response?
What a pitiful excuse.
[...]
A confused response is neither appropriate, nor deserved, and only reflects poorly on the responder.
Neither the problem statement, nor any of the confused responses were mine. My post was meant to clarify, not to excuse anything.
If you’re familiar with the tools of rationality, it is a trivial task to handle “confused” questions of exactly the kind I just asked—but that pre-supposes you have a clue what you’re talking about. All you have to do is identify the error it makes, find the nearest meaningful problem, and show how your model handles that.
No, that is not the correct way to handle confused questions. The correct way to handle them is to back up, and explain the issues that lead to the confusion. In this case, there are many different directions the question could have been rounded in, each of which would take a fairly lengthy amount of text to handle, and people aren’t willing to do that when you could just say that wasn’t what you meant. I should also observe that pjeby gave you a citation and ducked out of the conversation, specifically citing length as the problem.
At some point, you seem to have switched from conducting a discussion to conducting a battle. Most of the parent post is not talking about the supposed topic of discussion, but about the people who participated in it before. Unfortunately, the history of this thread is far too long for me to read through, so I cannot respond to those parts. However, I am strongly tempted to disregard your arguments solely on the basis of your tone; it leads me to believe that you’re in an affective death spiral.
Neither the problem statement, nor any of the confused responses were mine.
I know. Still a pitiful excuse, and yes, it was an excuse; you insinuated that my confused question deserved the flippant response. It didn’t. It required a simple, clear answer, which of course can only be given when the other party actually has a model he understands.
No, that is not the correct way to handle confused questions. The correct way to handle them is to back up, and explain the issues that lead to the confusion.
We’re bickering over semantics. The point is, there are more helpful answers, which one can reasonably be expected to give, than the “confused reply” you referred to. Richard knows what “finding a mate” means. So, if he actually understands his own model, he can break down “finding a mate” into its constituent references and outputs.
Or say how finding a mate should really be viewed as a set of other, specific references being tracked.
Or somehow give a hint that he understands his own model and can apply it to standard problems.
Was my epicycle example not the kind of response I could reasonably expect from someone who understands his own model?
Neither the problem statement, nor any of the confused responses were mine. My post was meant to clarify, not to excuse anything.
No, that is not the correct way to handle confused questions. The correct way to handle them is to back up, and explain the issues that lead to the confusion. In this case, there are many different directions the question could have been rounded in, each of which would take a fairly lengthy amount of text to handle, and people aren’t willing to do that when you could just say that wasn’t what you meant. I should also observe that pjeby gave you a citation and ducked out of the conversation, specifically citing length as the problem.
At some point, you seem to have switched from conducting a discussion to conducting a battle. Most of the parent post is not talking about the supposed topic of discussion, but about the people who participated in it before. Unfortunately, the history of this thread is far too long for me to read through, so I cannot respond to those parts. However, I am strongly tempted to disregard your arguments solely on the basis of your tone; it leads me to believe that you’re in an affective death spiral.
I know. Still a pitiful excuse, and yes, it was an excuse; you insinuated that my confused question deserved the flippant response. It didn’t. It required a simple, clear answer, which of course can only be given when the other party actually has a model he understands.
We’re bickering over semantics. The point is, there are more helpful answers, which one can reasonably be expected to give, than the “confused reply” you referred to. Richard knows what “finding a mate” means. So, if he actually understands his own model, he can break down “finding a mate” into its constituent references and outputs.
Or say how finding a mate should really be viewed as a set of other, specific references being tracked.
Or somehow give a hint that he understands his own model and can apply it to standard problems.
Was my epicycle example not the kind of response I could reasonably expect from someone who understands his own model?