Jokes are often used as a way to present ideas in a form that can bypass social filters. A tendency that I’ve noticed is more common here than in other places is to consider both the humorous aspect and the literal component of the joke. People sometimes interpret that tendency to be ‘not getting it’ but that’s because they don’t get it. It’s getting all of the song. The words and the music both.
(My reading: The above applies to Tyrrell’s comment perfectly. Jonathan is just responding to the name—the content is only superficially relevant. Cousin_it is no doubt aware of the Taleb’s intent but taking a far more serious stance. I’m applying a style of thinking analogous to the above paragraph but applied to the kind a query that would otherwise beget a simple social judgement.)
Thanks for clearing my confusion. I didn’t expect to get such an insightful answer. It further encourages me to develop my practice of noticing subtle confusion.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Facebook status update, Sunday Sept. 26.
My soul doesn’t always have my best interests at heart.
This guy has a lot of stupid beliefs. It’s too bad we have to hear about them because he made one good call.
Even if you call it rebellion of the soul, procrastination doesn’t seem to be good for my life.
The useful clue in there might be to build a more unified identity and/or more reasonable goals so that there’s less tendency to rebellion.
Hm. I parsed this as a joke but others seem to be taking it seriously. Who’s confused?
Jokes are often used as a way to present ideas in a form that can bypass social filters. A tendency that I’ve noticed is more common here than in other places is to consider both the humorous aspect and the literal component of the joke. People sometimes interpret that tendency to be ‘not getting it’ but that’s because they don’t get it. It’s getting all of the song. The words and the music both.
(My reading: The above applies to Tyrrell’s comment perfectly. Jonathan is just responding to the name—the content is only superficially relevant. Cousin_it is no doubt aware of the Taleb’s intent but taking a far more serious stance. I’m applying a style of thinking analogous to the above paragraph but applied to the kind a query that would otherwise beget a simple social judgement.)
Thanks for clearing my confusion. I didn’t expect to get such an insightful answer. It further encourages me to develop my practice of noticing subtle confusion.
Voltaire