I have chosen the word more as a pun. This isn’t so much a post that I wanted to write, but one I felt I needed to write after seeing a lot of people botcher up their microphone usage at the community weekend.
But as far as words go, rationally is more fitting than skillfully.
I don’t have a problem with people not having spent the time to practice speaking with a microphone to do skill building when being at an event like the community weekend. On the other hand, it annoys me when people don’t understand the basic concepts of the technology.
I’m not surprised about getting pushback and the fact that choosing the title this way will have a certain emotional impact.
At the same time, the word skillfully wouldn’t do the job of describing the article better. If you have a problem with the word rational getting overloaded, overloading skillfully wouldn’t be better. I also don’t think “optimal” would do the job better either.
I meant my comment to be more tongue-in-cheek than I think it came across (I meant to edit in a smiley and forgot. :P)
I do think it’s good to avoid using the world rational the way it was here, but mostly just thought it was funny. (I do think “How to use a microphone during public speaking” is a totally reasonable title that doesn’t require any additional words)
Is ‘rationally’ in the title doing something that ‘skillfully’ wouldn’t?
Also came here to recommend the practice of firewalling the optimal from the rational ;)
(And thanks for the post—it turns out I was using a microphone sub-optimally earlier this week!)
I have chosen the word more as a pun. This isn’t so much a post that I wanted to write, but one I felt I needed to write after seeing a lot of people botcher up their microphone usage at the community weekend.
But as far as words go, rationally is more fitting than skillfully.
I don’t have a problem with people not having spent the time to practice speaking with a microphone to do skill building when being at an event like the community weekend. On the other hand, it annoys me when people don’t understand the basic concepts of the technology.
To be really frank, and really succinct:
Abuse of the word ‘rational’ was one of the original social stressors that killed LessWrong.
It is not more fitting, and you should actually go back and edit your post to change it.
What do you think “rational” means when you thing “skillfully” would be more fitting?
FYI, you’re probably getting more pushback here because you’re wearing your rationalist’s shoes.
I’m not surprised about getting pushback and the fact that choosing the title this way will have a certain emotional impact.
At the same time, the word skillfully wouldn’t do the job of describing the article better. If you have a problem with the word rational getting overloaded, overloading skillfully wouldn’t be better. I also don’t think “optimal” would do the job better either.
“How to correctly use a microphone during public speaking”
“How to use a microphone during public speaking”
“How to hold a microphone when speaking in public”
“How to use a microphone and not look like a total noob while doing it”
“Everything you ever needed to know about using a microphone while speaking in public, but were afraid to ask”
etc.
I meant my comment to be more tongue-in-cheek than I think it came across (I meant to edit in a smiley and forgot. :P)
I do think it’s good to avoid using the world rational the way it was here, but mostly just thought it was funny. (I do think “How to use a microphone during public speaking” is a totally reasonable title that doesn’t require any additional words)