People around me often say things like, “We have a new toy! The norm is to put away all the pieces when you’re done playing with it” (or, more subtly, “I propose a norm of putting away all the pieces”), or “the Schelling time is tomorrow at noon”, or “now it’s common knowledge that I went to the shops [after saying ‘I went to the shops’]”. I often feel a little upset at this use of language. And then it helps me to think of the speech act as narrative syncing. My hackles are still a little raised (at least by the ‘norm’ one), but I understand more that the narrative syncing is doing something valuable.
I’ll expand a little on how I use the concept.
People around me often say things like, “We have a new toy! The norm is to put away all the pieces when you’re done playing with it” (or, more subtly, “I propose a norm of putting away all the pieces”), or “the Schelling time is tomorrow at noon”, or “now it’s common knowledge that I went to the shops [after saying ‘I went to the shops’]”. I often feel a little upset at this use of language. And then it helps me to think of the speech act as narrative syncing. My hackles are still a little raised (at least by the ‘norm’ one), but I understand more that the narrative syncing is doing something valuable.