There’s certainly important meta-norms of “figure out the right norm to use for the current situation”, and this is not meant to be overwhelmingly conclusive. But some notes:
1) I recommend this specifically for spaces where truth seeking is shared value, or where collective intelligence/creativity is particularly important. I’d be surprised if it took root in other contexts and wouldn’t recommend it there. Sometimes you are playing the game of “fun, interesting banter” or some-such (even within rationalist spaces) and then you’ll be doing different things.
2) Remember, part of the norm is “when you see people begin to talk without giving themselves or others time to think, interrupt them and say ‘Hey, can we each have a chance to think first so we don’t all anchor on one idea?’”. If you’re in a group where truth seeking, collective intelligence or creativity is important (even a non-rationalist space), I think this serves as good practice for being quick and assertive as well as polite, all while also strengthening meta-norms of “truth seeking is important.” If you’re including this part, I’d be surprised if it dampened your ability to quickly express your ideas when the situation demands it.
(I added some clarification to the original post based on this)
But again, definitely use your judgement based on what kind of situation you’re actually in.
Even in spaces where truth seeking is valued, time is valuable as well. When I sit together with a bunch of rationalists and the discussion is about what to cook for dinner there no benefit to waiting very long and it’s quite okay when someone makes a reasonable decision to cook in a cached way.
I think I should probably reverse my original statement to “where intelligence/creativity/truthseeking is important” (similar sentence but narrows it down the focus—group intelligence and creativity usually don’t matter for picking food, unless several people care about getting unusual/interesting food and roughly agree with each other on what kind to get)
The metanorm of “figure out what norm to use” is still important. But I do still assert that “the 12 second rule is a norm that should be used much more often i.e. at all in most rationalist discussion spaces”
There’s certainly important meta-norms of “figure out the right norm to use for the current situation”, and this is not meant to be overwhelmingly conclusive. But some notes:
1) I recommend this specifically for spaces where truth seeking is shared value, or where collective intelligence/creativity is particularly important. I’d be surprised if it took root in other contexts and wouldn’t recommend it there. Sometimes you are playing the game of “fun, interesting banter” or some-such (even within rationalist spaces) and then you’ll be doing different things.
2) Remember, part of the norm is “when you see people begin to talk without giving themselves or others time to think, interrupt them and say ‘Hey, can we each have a chance to think first so we don’t all anchor on one idea?’”. If you’re in a group where truth seeking, collective intelligence or creativity is important (even a non-rationalist space), I think this serves as good practice for being quick and assertive as well as polite, all while also strengthening meta-norms of “truth seeking is important.” If you’re including this part, I’d be surprised if it dampened your ability to quickly express your ideas when the situation demands it.
(I added some clarification to the original post based on this)
But again, definitely use your judgement based on what kind of situation you’re actually in.
Even in spaces where truth seeking is valued, time is valuable as well. When I sit together with a bunch of rationalists and the discussion is about what to cook for dinner there no benefit to waiting very long and it’s quite okay when someone makes a reasonable decision to cook in a cached way.
Agreed.
I think I should probably reverse my original statement to “where intelligence/creativity/truthseeking is important” (similar sentence but narrows it down the focus—group intelligence and creativity usually don’t matter for picking food, unless several people care about getting unusual/interesting food and roughly agree with each other on what kind to get)
The metanorm of “figure out what norm to use” is still important. But I do still assert that “the 12 second rule is a norm that should be used much more often i.e. at all in most rationalist discussion spaces”