I am sick of being accused of being disingenuous, using dark arts and countless other things like asking “rhetorical questions”.
Using somewhat different language this is exactly what you declare about yourself. Those things which you describe so casually as your own preferred behaviors are seen by those with a lesswrong mindset as disengenuity and the abuse of the dark arts. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing—you’d fit right in at MENSA for example, aside from the entry requirement I suppose—it just isn’t received well on lesswrong.
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing—you’d fit right in at MENSA for example, aside from the entry requirement I suppose—it just isn’t received well on lesswrong.
Was that some sort of a dig at Mensa, or XiXiDu, or both ? I know next to nothing about Mensa, so I feel like I’m missing the context here… Aren’t they just a bunch of guys who solve IQ tests as a hobby ?
Those things which you describe so casually as your own preferred behaviors are seen by those with a lesswrong mindset as disengenuity and the abuse of the dark arts.
It is not dark arts if you are honest about what you are doing.
What I am often doing is exploring various viewpoints by taking the position of someone who would be emotionally attached to it and convinced about it. I also use the opponents arguments against the opponent if it shows that it cuts both ways. I don’t see why that would be a problem, especially since I always admitted that I am doing that. See for example this comment from 2010.
It is not dark arts if you are honest about what you are doing.
That’s absolutely false. The terror management theory people, for example, discovered that mortality salience still kicks in even if you tell people that you’re going to expose them to something in order to provoke their own feeling of mortality.
EDIT: The paper I wanted to cite is still paywalled, afaik, but the relevant references are mostly linked in this section of the Wikipedia article. The relevant study is the one where the threat was writing about one’s feelings on death.
It is not dark arts if you are honest about what you are doing.
That’s absolutely false.
Okay. I possibly mistakenly assumed that the only way I could get answers is to challenge people directly and emotionally. I didn’t expect that I could just ask how people associated with SI/LW could possible believe what they believe and get answers. I tried, but it didn’t work.
Using somewhat different language this is exactly what you declare about yourself. Those things which you describe so casually as your own preferred behaviors are seen by those with a lesswrong mindset as disengenuity and the abuse of the dark arts. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing—you’d fit right in at MENSA for example, aside from the entry requirement I suppose—it just isn’t received well on lesswrong.
Was that some sort of a dig at Mensa, or XiXiDu, or both ? I know next to nothing about Mensa, so I feel like I’m missing the context here… Aren’t they just a bunch of guys who solve IQ tests as a hobby ?
Neither, more of a mild compliment combined with an acknowledgement that the lesswrong way is not the only way—or even particularly common.
It is not dark arts if you are honest about what you are doing.
What I am often doing is exploring various viewpoints by taking the position of someone who would be emotionally attached to it and convinced about it. I also use the opponents arguments against the opponent if it shows that it cuts both ways. I don’t see why that would be a problem, especially since I always admitted that I am doing that. See for example this comment from 2010.
That’s absolutely false. The terror management theory people, for example, discovered that mortality salience still kicks in even if you tell people that you’re going to expose them to something in order to provoke their own feeling of mortality.
EDIT: The paper I wanted to cite is still paywalled, afaik, but the relevant references are mostly linked in this section of the Wikipedia article. The relevant study is the one where the threat was writing about one’s feelings on death.
Okay. I possibly mistakenly assumed that the only way I could get answers is to challenge people directly and emotionally. I didn’t expect that I could just ask how people associated with SI/LW could possible believe what they believe and get answers. I tried, but it didn’t work.