Ah, I didn’t realize you were focused on large scale politics and figured you were using it as merely one example.
I’m not so sure I agree on that completely. Certainly it’s more in that direction, and you aren’t going to be able to explain complex models to large electorates, and I don’t have time to coherently express my reasoning here, but it certainly appears to me that teaching is possible on the margin and that this strategy still works on larger scales with more of those inherent limitations.
I agree that “you’re the best” isn’t dishonest so long as the person knows what you mean. My point wasn’t about honesty so much as whether you want to dilute your message. I should be clear that it doesn’t always apply here and I don’t claim to have the full answer about exactly how to do it, but I have found value in avoiding certain types of these “honest literal-untruths” or whatever you’d like to call them. In cases where one might want to say “you got this!” as normal encouragement, abstaining from normal encouragement makes it easier to convey real confidence in the person when you know for a fact that they can do it. Both have value, but I do feel like the latter is often undervalued while the former is overvalued.
I’ve classically been a literalist super-honest guy, and now intend to be super-honest about what I make the other person hear.
I think them knowing I’m being honest about what they hear is sufficient to grant me all the benefits I’ve enjoyed in the past, while avoiding some of the disadvantages
Ah, I didn’t realize you were focused on large scale politics and figured you were using it as merely one example.
I’m not so sure I agree on that completely. Certainly it’s more in that direction, and you aren’t going to be able to explain complex models to large electorates, and I don’t have time to coherently express my reasoning here, but it certainly appears to me that teaching is possible on the margin and that this strategy still works on larger scales with more of those inherent limitations.
I agree that “you’re the best” isn’t dishonest so long as the person knows what you mean. My point wasn’t about honesty so much as whether you want to dilute your message. I should be clear that it doesn’t always apply here and I don’t claim to have the full answer about exactly how to do it, but I have found value in avoiding certain types of these “honest literal-untruths” or whatever you’d like to call them. In cases where one might want to say “you got this!” as normal encouragement, abstaining from normal encouragement makes it easier to convey real confidence in the person when you know for a fact that they can do it. Both have value, but I do feel like the latter is often undervalued while the former is overvalued.
I’ve classically been a literalist super-honest guy, and now intend to be super-honest about what I make the other person hear.
I think them knowing I’m being honest about what they hear is sufficient to grant me all the benefits I’ve enjoyed in the past, while avoiding some of the disadvantages