So I think if you have any ideas that you have not already clearly explained, then you should do so. (And please, not in Latin.)
Okay, thanks for the advice. I haven’t yet clearly explained most of my ideas. (Hm, “my” ideas?—I doubt any of them are actually “mine”.) Not sure I want to do so (hence the Latin), but it sort of seems like a moral imperative, so I guess I have to. bleh bleh bleh
Making off-hand references to theology is not going to change our minds about this. Do you have an actual plan to do so?
I’ve debated the meta-level issue of epistemic “charity” and how much importance we should assign it in our decision calculi a few times on LessWrong before, e.g. in a few debates with Nesov. You were involved in at least one of them. I think what eventually happened is that I became afraid I was committing typical mind fallacy in advocating a sort of devil-may-care attitude to looking at weird or low-status beliefs; Nesov claimed that doing so had been harmful to him in the past, so I decided I’d rather collect more data before pushing my epistemic intuitions. Unfortunately I don’t know of an easy way to collect more data, so I’ve sort of stalled out on that particular campaign. The making references to theism thing is a sort of middleground position I’ve taken up, presumably to escape various aversions that I don’t have immediate introspective access to. There’s also the matter of not going out of my way to not appear discreditable.
The making references to theism thing is a sort of middleground position I’ve taken up, presumably to escape various aversions that I don’t have immediate introspective access to.
FWIW, I think this “middleground position” is the worst of both worlds.
There’s also the matter of not going out of my way to not appear discreditable.
Your comments have made me wonder if I’ve been too creditable, i.e., to the extent of making people take my ideas more seriously than they should. But it seems like a valid Umeshism that if there isn’t at least one person who has taken your ideas too seriously, then you’re not being creditable enough. I may be close to (or past) this threshold already, but you seem to still have quite a long way to go, so I suggest not worrying about this right now. Especially since credibility is much harder to gain than to lose, so if you ever find yourself having too much credibility, it shouldn’t be too late to do something about it then.
Your comment seems to me to be modally implicitly self-contradictory. For you say that you are worried that you’ve caused yourself to be too creditable, and yet the reason you are considering that hypothesis is that I, a mere peasant, have implicitly-suggested-if-only-categorically that that might be the case. If I am wrong to doubt the wisdom of my self-doubting, then by your lights I am right, and not right to do so! You’ve taken me seriously enough to doubt yourself—to some extent this implies that I have impressed my self too strongly upon you, for you and I and everyone else thinks that you are more justified than I. Again, modally—not necessarily self-contradictory, but it leans that way, at least connotationally-implicitly.
(Really quite drunk, again, apologies for errors, again.)
Damn it, why am I giving you advice on the proper level of credibility, when I should be telling you to stop drinking so much? Talk about cached selves...
Okay, thanks for the advice. I haven’t yet clearly explained most of my ideas. (Hm, “my” ideas?—I doubt any of them are actually “mine”.) Not sure I want to do so (hence the Latin), but it sort of seems like a moral imperative, so I guess I have to. bleh bleh bleh
I’ve debated the meta-level issue of epistemic “charity” and how much importance we should assign it in our decision calculi a few times on LessWrong before, e.g. in a few debates with Nesov. You were involved in at least one of them. I think what eventually happened is that I became afraid I was committing typical mind fallacy in advocating a sort of devil-may-care attitude to looking at weird or low-status beliefs; Nesov claimed that doing so had been harmful to him in the past, so I decided I’d rather collect more data before pushing my epistemic intuitions. Unfortunately I don’t know of an easy way to collect more data, so I’ve sort of stalled out on that particular campaign. The making references to theism thing is a sort of middleground position I’ve taken up, presumably to escape various aversions that I don’t have immediate introspective access to. There’s also the matter of not going out of my way to not appear discreditable.
FWIW, I think this “middleground position” is the worst of both worlds.
Your comments have made me wonder if I’ve been too creditable, i.e., to the extent of making people take my ideas more seriously than they should. But it seems like a valid Umeshism that if there isn’t at least one person who has taken your ideas too seriously, then you’re not being creditable enough. I may be close to (or past) this threshold already, but you seem to still have quite a long way to go, so I suggest not worrying about this right now. Especially since credibility is much harder to gain than to lose, so if you ever find yourself having too much credibility, it shouldn’t be too late to do something about it then.
Your comment seems to me to be modally implicitly self-contradictory. For you say that you are worried that you’ve caused yourself to be too creditable, and yet the reason you are considering that hypothesis is that I, a mere peasant, have implicitly-suggested-if-only-categorically that that might be the case. If I am wrong to doubt the wisdom of my self-doubting, then by your lights I am right, and not right to do so! You’ve taken me seriously enough to doubt yourself—to some extent this implies that I have impressed my self too strongly upon you, for you and I and everyone else thinks that you are more justified than I. Again, modally—not necessarily self-contradictory, but it leans that way, at least connotationally-implicitly.
(Really quite drunk, again, apologies for errors, again.)
Damn it, why am I giving you advice on the proper level of credibility, when I should be telling you to stop drinking so much? Talk about cached selves...
It’s okay, I ran out of rum. But now I’m left with an existential question: Why is the rum gone?