Meta question: are there ‘gray area’ quotes that can fit both rationality and irrationality?
Let’s take ’You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” for example. On the positive side, it means that you should definitely do X, because otherwise you could never get it. The gray area is that it’s abstract and situation specific, there’s nothing that guaratees success or failure. The negative side could end up you making a fool of yourself.
I’m not really sure where I’m going with this. It seems like rationality quotes provide wisdom, and things to consider. Irrationality quotes provide the opposite: they have faulty reasoning and should be things to avoid. This binary situation reminds me of the part of GEB where it discusses if machines are ultra-flexible or ultra-limited. Can a (ir)rationality quote have the paradox of being both useful and harmful at the same time?
Seems similar to the “motte and bailey” concept—ideas having both rational and irrational interpretation.
Except that in the typical “motte and bailey”, the rational version is supposed to be boring, while in what you describe, the rational version is also interesting.
Probably any rational advice can be horribly abused, so I’m not sure if there is a specific category of those that are specifically “asking for” being abused, or whether just some forms of abuse accidentally become popular.
Meta question: are there ‘gray area’ quotes that can fit both rationality and irrationality?
Let’s take ’You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” for example. On the positive side, it means that you should definitely do X, because otherwise you could never get it. The gray area is that it’s abstract and situation specific, there’s nothing that guaratees success or failure. The negative side could end up you making a fool of yourself.
I’m not really sure where I’m going with this. It seems like rationality quotes provide wisdom, and things to consider. Irrationality quotes provide the opposite: they have faulty reasoning and should be things to avoid. This binary situation reminds me of the part of GEB where it discusses if machines are ultra-flexible or ultra-limited. Can a (ir)rationality quote have the paradox of being both useful and harmful at the same time?
Seems similar to the “motte and bailey” concept—ideas having both rational and irrational interpretation.
Except that in the typical “motte and bailey”, the rational version is supposed to be boring, while in what you describe, the rational version is also interesting.
Probably any rational advice can be horribly abused, so I’m not sure if there is a specific category of those that are specifically “asking for” being abused, or whether just some forms of abuse accidentally become popular.