I don’t see where he said anybody was being deficient in anything.
This was the impression I got from the article’s tone, as well as your previous comments—an impression of “you should do this for your own good”. If that was not the intent, I apologize, it is easy to misread tone over the internet.
And if you don’t judge or fear it to be such, why would the article set you off? If you were really happy with things as they are, wouldn’t you’d have just said, “oh, something I don’t need”, and went on with your life? Why so much protest?
Because there have been other times where people expressed opinions about what I ought to be doing for enjoyment (cf. the kind of helpfulness described as optimizing others ) and I find it irritating. It’s a minor but persistent pet peeve.
I remarked on the article originally mainly because the advice it offered seemed puzzlingly obvious.
This was the impression I got from the article’s tone, as well as your previous comments—an impression of “you should do this for your own good”.
Ah. All I said in the original context was that rationality is only an obstacle in social situations if you used it as an excuse to make everything about you and your ideas/priorities/values, and gave the article as some background on the ways that “rational” people sometimes do that. No advice was given or implied.
As for the article’s tone, bear in mind that it’s a pickup artist’s blog (or more precisely, the blog of a trainer of pickup artists).
So, his audience is people who already want to improve their social skills, and therefore have already decided it’s a worthy goal to do so. That’s why the article doesn’t attempt to make a case for why someone would want to improve their social skills—it is, after all a major topic of the blog.
So, his audience is people who already want to improve their social skills, and therefore have already decided it’s a worthy goal to do so. That’s why the article doesn’t attempt to make a case for why someone would want to improve their social skills—it is, after all a major topic of the blog.
Yes, this is what I meant when I said I probably wasn’t in the target demographic—my social skills are acceptable, but my desire to socialize is fairly low.
This was the impression I got from the article’s tone, as well as your previous comments—an impression of “you should do this for your own good”. If that was not the intent, I apologize, it is easy to misread tone over the internet.
Because there have been other times where people expressed opinions about what I ought to be doing for enjoyment (cf. the kind of helpfulness described as optimizing others ) and I find it irritating. It’s a minor but persistent pet peeve.
I remarked on the article originally mainly because the advice it offered seemed puzzlingly obvious.
Ah. All I said in the original context was that rationality is only an obstacle in social situations if you used it as an excuse to make everything about you and your ideas/priorities/values, and gave the article as some background on the ways that “rational” people sometimes do that. No advice was given or implied.
As for the article’s tone, bear in mind that it’s a pickup artist’s blog (or more precisely, the blog of a trainer of pickup artists).
So, his audience is people who already want to improve their social skills, and therefore have already decided it’s a worthy goal to do so. That’s why the article doesn’t attempt to make a case for why someone would want to improve their social skills—it is, after all a major topic of the blog.
Yes, this is what I meant when I said I probably wasn’t in the target demographic—my social skills are acceptable, but my desire to socialize is fairly low.
Anyway, sorry for the pointless argument, heh.