Some people try to fight this sort of thing by punishing people whenever they misuse words, and… I dunno man I just don’t think that fight is winnable. Or at least, it seems like we should aim to things up so that we have to spend less energy on that fight in the first place.
I agree that it’s good to avoid fights by making good behaviour more easy and natural, but man, I feel very depressed by the idea that the rationality community can’t coordinate on the norm that one should use words precisely and clearly to preserve useful meanings. Which is to say, I think that the fight could maybe be winnable (at least in certain contexts), but also that if it isn’t it’s worth spending more time thinking about how we could have failed so badly.
I do think it’s a fine, achievable goal for the rationalsphere… in places that have relatively longterm expectations and norms. I think it may be achievable on LW. I don’t think it’s especially achievable on Open FaceBook and places where the social boundaries are porous and people come and go and don’t have much common expectations (or common knowledge that they have common expectations).
(And, it seems like a lot of good jargon here should be making the rounds outside of the rationalsphere, and you’d want it to be able to survive once it reaches a mass audience)
I agree that it’s good to avoid fights by making good behaviour more easy and natural, but man, I feel very depressed by the idea that the rationality community can’t coordinate on the norm that one should use words precisely and clearly to preserve useful meanings. Which is to say, I think that the fight could maybe be winnable (at least in certain contexts), but also that if it isn’t it’s worth spending more time thinking about how we could have failed so badly.
I do think it’s a fine, achievable goal for the rationalsphere… in places that have relatively longterm expectations and norms. I think it may be achievable on LW. I don’t think it’s especially achievable on Open FaceBook and places where the social boundaries are porous and people come and go and don’t have much common expectations (or common knowledge that they have common expectations).
(And, it seems like a lot of good jargon here should be making the rounds outside of the rationalsphere, and you’d want it to be able to survive once it reaches a mass audience)
I would draw a line between “fighting change by punishing defection” and “coordination to maintain a meaning”.