In reference to Said criticizing Benquo, you seem to be ignoring the crucial point, which is that Said was right. Benquo made the simple claim, that knowing about yeast is useful in everyday life, and this claim is clearly wrong, regardless of what either of them said about it. Benquo could have admitted this, or he could have found another example. But instead he doubled down on being wrong, which naturally leads to frustration. It’s concerning that you picked this conversation as an example, as if you can’t tell.
I’m also confused by the “asymmetric effort” part. You describe it like a competition between author and critic. But if the criticism is correct, the author should be happy to receive it (isn’t that the point of making posts?). And how much effort does it take to say “I don’t understand what you mean” or “this doesn’t seem important to my core point” or “you’re right”? And what reward do you think Said gets from this? Certainly not social status, as he clearly doesn’t have any.
By the way, I appreciate you pointing to real conversations instead of vaguely hand waving. If you want to change anyone’s mind about norms, you need to point to negative as well as positive examples as evidence. Hopefully you’ll do that when you eventually explain the right way to fight the LinkedIn attractor.
In reference to Said criticizing Benquo, you seem to be ignoring the crucial point, which is that Said was right. Benquo made the simple claim, that knowing about yeast is useful in everyday life, and this claim is clearly wrong, regardless of what either of them said about it. Benquo could have admitted this, or he could have found another example. But instead he doubled down on being wrong, which naturally leads to frustration. It’s concerning that you picked this conversation as an example, as if you can’t tell.
I’m also confused by the “asymmetric effort” part. You describe it like a competition between author and critic. But if the criticism is correct, the author should be happy to receive it (isn’t that the point of making posts?). And how much effort does it take to say “I don’t understand what you mean” or “this doesn’t seem important to my core point” or “you’re right”? And what reward do you think Said gets from this? Certainly not social status, as he clearly doesn’t have any.
By the way, I appreciate you pointing to real conversations instead of vaguely hand waving. If you want to change anyone’s mind about norms, you need to point to negative as well as positive examples as evidence. Hopefully you’ll do that when you eventually explain the right way to fight the LinkedIn attractor.