Although this is the lesser of two evils. This comment and this are, it seems to me, trying too hard to be the smartest person in the room: technically correct, but only if you ride roughshod over Gricean principles. This is a common failure mode.
If “violating Gricean principles” = willfully misunderstanding what was meant, I wasn’t.
The trouble with what ismeant by “your in the wrong room” is that while it can be taken to mean “seek out intellectual superiors” is also means “avoid intellectual inferiors”. I meant to contest the latter.
How so? “You’re the smartest person in the room” means that you have no intellectual superiors in there. It doesn’t mean you have no intellectual inferiors—that’d be “you’re not the dumbest person in the room”.
Those are not the best 15 words!
Although this is the lesser of two evils. This comment and this are, it seems to me, trying too hard to be the smartest person in the room: technically correct, but only if you ride roughshod over Gricean principles. This is a common failure mode.
(My comment was kind-of tongue-in-cheek. I know what you actually meant.)
If “violating Gricean principles” = willfully misunderstanding what was meant, I wasn’t.
The trouble with what ismeant by “your in the wrong room” is that while it can be taken to mean “seek out intellectual superiors” is also means “avoid intellectual inferiors”. I meant to contest the latter.
How so? “You’re the smartest person in the room” means that you have no intellectual superiors in there. It doesn’t mean you have no intellectual inferiors—that’d be “you’re not the dumbest person in the room”.