There’s a version of this that’s directional advice: if you get a “bad vibe” from someone, how strongly should this influence your actions towards them? Like all directional advice, whether it’s correct or incorrect depends on your starting point. Too little influence, and you’ll find yourself surrounded by bad characters; too much, and you’ll find yourself in a conformism bubble. The details of what does and doesn’t trigger your “bad vibe” feeling matters a lot; the better calibrated it is, the more you should trust it.
There’s a slightly more nuanced version, which is if you get a “bad vibe” from someone, do you promote it to attention and think explicitly about what it might mean, and how do you relate to those thoughts?
I think for many people, that kind of explicit thinking is somewhat hazardous, because it allows red flags to be explained away in ways that they shouldn’t be. To take a comically exaggerated example that nevertheless literally happened: There was someone who described themself as a Sith Lord and wears robes. If you engage with that using only subconscious “vibe” reasoning, you would have avoided them. If you engaged with that using verbal reasoning, they might convince you that “Sith” is just a flavorful way of saying anti-authoritarianism, and also that it’s a “religion” and you’re not supposed to “discriminate”. Or, phrased slightly differently: verbal thinking increases the surface area through which you can get hacked.
Or, phrased slightly differently: verbal thinking increases the surface area through which you can get hacked.
This doesn’t seem quite right, because it is also possible to have an unconscious or un-verbalized sense that, e.g., you’re not supposed to “discriminate” against “religions”, or that “authority” is bad and any rebellion against “authority” is good, etc. If bringing such attitudes to conscious awareness and verbalizing them allows you to examine and discard them, have you excised a vulnerability or installed one? Not clear.
If bringing such attitudes to conscious awareness and verbalizing them allows you to examine and discard them, have you excised a vulnerability or installed one? Not clear.
Possibly both, but one thing breaks the symmetry: it is on average less bad to be hacked by distant forces than by close ones.
There’s a version of this that’s directional advice: if you get a “bad vibe” from someone, how strongly should this influence your actions towards them? Like all directional advice, whether it’s correct or incorrect depends on your starting point. Too little influence, and you’ll find yourself surrounded by bad characters; too much, and you’ll find yourself in a conformism bubble. The details of what does and doesn’t trigger your “bad vibe” feeling matters a lot; the better calibrated it is, the more you should trust it.
There’s a slightly more nuanced version, which is if you get a “bad vibe” from someone, do you promote it to attention and think explicitly about what it might mean, and how do you relate to those thoughts?
I think for many people, that kind of explicit thinking is somewhat hazardous, because it allows red flags to be explained away in ways that they shouldn’t be. To take a comically exaggerated example that nevertheless literally happened: There was someone who described themself as a Sith Lord and wears robes. If you engage with that using only subconscious “vibe” reasoning, you would have avoided them. If you engaged with that using verbal reasoning, they might convince you that “Sith” is just a flavorful way of saying anti-authoritarianism, and also that it’s a “religion” and you’re not supposed to “discriminate”. Or, phrased slightly differently: verbal thinking increases the surface area through which you can get hacked.
This doesn’t seem quite right, because it is also possible to have an unconscious or un-verbalized sense that, e.g., you’re not supposed to “discriminate” against “religions”, or that “authority” is bad and any rebellion against “authority” is good, etc. If bringing such attitudes to conscious awareness and verbalizing them allows you to examine and discard them, have you excised a vulnerability or installed one? Not clear.
Possibly both, but one thing breaks the symmetry: it is on average less bad to be hacked by distant forces than by close ones.