Mostly, all good. (I’m mainly making this comment about process because it’s a thing that crops up a lot and seems sort of important to interactions in general, not because it particularly matters in this case.) Just, “I meant you’re intentionally moving the conversation away from trying to nail down specifics”; so, it’s true that (1) I was intentionally doing X, and (2) X entails not particularly going toward nailing down specifics, and (3) relative to trying to nail down specifics, (2) entails systematically less nailing down of specifics. But it’s not the case that I intended to avoid nailing down specifics; I just was doing something else. I’m not just saying that I wasn’t *deliberately* avoiding specifics, I’m saying I was behaving differently from someone who has a goal or subgoal of avoiding specifics. Someone with such a goal might say some things that have the sole effect of moving the conversation away from specifics. For example, they might provide fake specifics to distract you from the fact they’re not nailing down specifics; they might mock you or otherwise punish you for asking for specifics; they might ask you / tell you not to ask questions because they call for specifics; they might criticize questions for calling for specifics; etc. In general there’s a potentially adversarial dynamic here, where someone intends Y but pretends not to intend Y, and does this by acting as though they intend X which entails pushing against Y; and this muddies the waters for people just intending X, not Y, because third parties can’t distinguish them. Anyway, I just don’t like the general cultural milieu of treating it as an ironclad inference that if someone’s actions systematically result in Y, they’re intending Y. It’s really not a valid inference in theory or practice. The situation is sometimes muddied, such that it’s appropriate to treat such people *as though* they’re intending Y, but distinguishing this from a high-confidence proposition that they are in fact intending Y (even non-deliberately!) is important IMO.
Mostly, all good. (I’m mainly making this comment about process because it’s a thing that crops up a lot and seems sort of important to interactions in general, not because it particularly matters in this case.) Just, “I meant you’re intentionally moving the conversation away from trying to nail down specifics”; so, it’s true that (1) I was intentionally doing X, and (2) X entails not particularly going toward nailing down specifics, and (3) relative to trying to nail down specifics, (2) entails systematically less nailing down of specifics. But it’s not the case that I intended to avoid nailing down specifics; I just was doing something else. I’m not just saying that I wasn’t *deliberately* avoiding specifics, I’m saying I was behaving differently from someone who has a goal or subgoal of avoiding specifics. Someone with such a goal might say some things that have the sole effect of moving the conversation away from specifics. For example, they might provide fake specifics to distract you from the fact they’re not nailing down specifics; they might mock you or otherwise punish you for asking for specifics; they might ask you / tell you not to ask questions because they call for specifics; they might criticize questions for calling for specifics; etc. In general there’s a potentially adversarial dynamic here, where someone intends Y but pretends not to intend Y, and does this by acting as though they intend X which entails pushing against Y; and this muddies the waters for people just intending X, not Y, because third parties can’t distinguish them. Anyway, I just don’t like the general cultural milieu of treating it as an ironclad inference that if someone’s actions systematically result in Y, they’re intending Y. It’s really not a valid inference in theory or practice. The situation is sometimes muddied, such that it’s appropriate to treat such people *as though* they’re intending Y, but distinguishing this from a high-confidence proposition that they are in fact intending Y (even non-deliberately!) is important IMO.