The post avoids making an explicit argument about what an optimal LW would look like and comparing LW as it is now to that ideal. I think this serves two major purposes, one legitimate and one illegitimate.
It is legitimate to argue in favor of any of a broad and diverse range of alternatives as preferable to a specific policy, and vagueness is legitimate when used to do this. E.g. “Let’s not drive to the theater. We can do something here instead” “You’re saying we should stay home and eat all the silverware?!” ”...no.”
It is illegitimate to avoid making actual arguments and specificity as a dodge that invokes arguments favoring your conclusion in the minds of readers, without articulating anything falsifiable. “I have to go, but if we had kept playing chess, I would have won.” “I can force a mate in at most six moves after my next move here. You can’t escape either an eventual fork by the knight or pin by the bishop. See?” “No, see I can move the rook to prevent the fork...” “Right, that’s what sets you up for the pin!” ”...no, because I don’t have to move my rook. So you see, it’s not certain that you can take the rook with the knight and it’s not certain you can take it with the bishop. Therefore, it’s not certain that you can take it, and not certain you can mate me.” “That actually doesn’t follow. You can only make one move at a time. Your moves certainly leave the king vulnerable, but because your account of what your moves would be is so vague, I can’t say one move in particular will lead to your defeat.” “Did I mention, LW doesn’t have ‘competitiveness’ in the tag cloud? I disapprove and am concerned.” “Umm...I wouldn’t say that’s a major concern. Tell me exactly why you think it is and I’ll tell you how you’re wrong, but until you do, I’m mentally downvoting you for nonconstructive contrariness-raising a nonspecific concern without telling me why it’s an actual concern or what would be better, because it seems to me that there are no good arguments that it is a concern. I’m responsible for being able to defeat the best Frankenstein argument that could be cobbled together out of the shards of even your worst argument, but I’ll be damned if I’ll pay for the reagents to rehabilitate your statement when you haven’t given me reason to think you even have an actual argument. I fulfill my responsibility of being able to defeat arguments like the one I think you almost made by understanding exactly what’s wrong with the similar arguments other people spend the effort to think through.”
This post seems incomplete. If it is complete, it seems almost...confused? I don’t understand what the point of your post is.
The post avoids making an explicit argument about what an optimal LW would look like and comparing LW as it is now to that ideal. I think this serves two major purposes, one legitimate and one illegitimate.
It is legitimate to argue in favor of any of a broad and diverse range of alternatives as preferable to a specific policy, and vagueness is legitimate when used to do this. E.g. “Let’s not drive to the theater. We can do something here instead” “You’re saying we should stay home and eat all the silverware?!” ”...no.”
It is illegitimate to avoid making actual arguments and specificity as a dodge that invokes arguments favoring your conclusion in the minds of readers, without articulating anything falsifiable. “I have to go, but if we had kept playing chess, I would have won.” “I can force a mate in at most six moves after my next move here. You can’t escape either an eventual fork by the knight or pin by the bishop. See?” “No, see I can move the rook to prevent the fork...” “Right, that’s what sets you up for the pin!” ”...no, because I don’t have to move my rook. So you see, it’s not certain that you can take the rook with the knight and it’s not certain you can take it with the bishop. Therefore, it’s not certain that you can take it, and not certain you can mate me.” “That actually doesn’t follow. You can only make one move at a time. Your moves certainly leave the king vulnerable, but because your account of what your moves would be is so vague, I can’t say one move in particular will lead to your defeat.” “Did I mention, LW doesn’t have ‘competitiveness’ in the tag cloud? I disapprove and am concerned.” “Umm...I wouldn’t say that’s a major concern. Tell me exactly why you think it is and I’ll tell you how you’re wrong, but until you do, I’m mentally downvoting you for nonconstructive contrariness-raising a nonspecific concern without telling me why it’s an actual concern or what would be better, because it seems to me that there are no good arguments that it is a concern. I’m responsible for being able to defeat the best Frankenstein argument that could be cobbled together out of the shards of even your worst argument, but I’ll be damned if I’ll pay for the reagents to rehabilitate your statement when you haven’t given me reason to think you even have an actual argument. I fulfill my responsibility of being able to defeat arguments like the one I think you almost made by understanding exactly what’s wrong with the similar arguments other people spend the effort to think through.”
It’s probably a draft that was published prematurely due to this bug.
It’s not originally from the discussion area, so no.