These are great suggestions. Thank you. I think I just changed my mind.
My model didn’t account for someone actually pointing out flaws using their own reasoning in novel situations. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone actually do this.
In my experience, criticism in the wild is the art of finding and repeating another thinker’s reasoning to re-attack a clearly wrong idea again without adding anything new to human thought or attempting to do something tangible to improve things.
The reason that I dismiss critics like this is because they are engaging in an enjoyable, negative-sum activity by sitting around and sniping at people for “being wrong” while not engaging in the less enjoyable, positive-sum activity of actually trying to do something better. People who actually do things understand this which I think is what Roosevelt was getting at in pointing out that it is unhelpful to mindlessly repeat inadequacies of the best functioning plans without attempting to invent and/or implement alternatives.
In my experience, criticism in the wild is the art of finding and repeating another thinker’s reasoning to re-attack a clearly wrong idea again without adding anything new to human thought or attempting to do something tangible to improve things.
Yup, there is definitely that aspect to things, alas.
Though I would submit that even such unoriginal criticism may be justified, given an important rhetorical objective.
These are great suggestions. Thank you. I think I just changed my mind.
My model didn’t account for someone actually pointing out flaws using their own reasoning in novel situations. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone actually do this.
In my experience, criticism in the wild is the art of finding and repeating another thinker’s reasoning to re-attack a clearly wrong idea again without adding anything new to human thought or attempting to do something tangible to improve things.
The reason that I dismiss critics like this is because they are engaging in an enjoyable, negative-sum activity by sitting around and sniping at people for “being wrong” while not engaging in the less enjoyable, positive-sum activity of actually trying to do something better. People who actually do things understand this which I think is what Roosevelt was getting at in pointing out that it is unhelpful to mindlessly repeat inadequacies of the best functioning plans without attempting to invent and/or implement alternatives.
Yup, there is definitely that aspect to things, alas.
Though I would submit that even such unoriginal criticism may be justified, given an important rhetorical objective.