For instance, one of the pieces of information in the sidebar is star sign. Now, you can say in your answer whether it matters to you, doesn’t matter. But it’s a straight up warning sign even having answered the question to me. Even if you say it doesn’t matter to you, it matters enough that you’d deign to fill it in. I can’t take someone who can even semi-believe in star signs seriously.
Huh. I filled out sign because I’m an aggressive completionist and when I see a form I fill it out completely by default.
But I did leave the Drugs, Religion, and Pets fields blank, for very similar reasons. Why the difference? The sign question does have an objective, unquestionable answer (depending on what time of the year I was born), but as someone who used to use illicit recreational drugs (what I guess most people would take “drugs” to mean in that context) but no longer does, doesn’t give a damn whether any deity exists, and doesn’t have pets because can’t be bothered to maintain them but doesn’t particularly dislike cats or dogs, none of the possible answers to those other questions would feel right.
(And BTW, I do give a non-negligible probability to the month one was born in having a measurable effect in certain situations, but I still answered “but it doesn’t matter” because I don’t think that’s what people will think the question is about, for which we empirically know the answer.)
Huh. I filled out sign because I’m an aggressive completionist and when I see a form I fill it out completely by default.
Me too.
[reads grandparent]
But I did leave the Drugs, Religion, and Pets fields blank, for very similar reasons. Why the difference? The sign question does have an objective, unquestionable answer (depending on what time of the year I was born), but as someone who used to use illicit recreational drugs (what I guess most people would take “drugs” to mean in that context) but no longer does, doesn’t give a damn whether any deity exists, and doesn’t have pets because can’t be bothered to maintain them but doesn’t particularly dislike cats or dogs, none of the possible answers to those other questions would feel right.
(And BTW, I do give a non-negligible probability to the month one was born in having a measurable effect in certain situations, but I still answered “but it doesn’t matter” because I don’t think that’s what people will think the question is about, for which we empirically know the answer.)