Really like this explanation, especially the third example and conclusion.
I feel like a similar mental move helps me understand and work with all sorts of not-yet-operationalized arguments in my head (or that other people make). If I think people are “too X”, and then I think about what my other options to have said were there, it helps me triangulate about what thing I actually mean. I think this is much faster and more resilient to ladder-of-abstraction mistakes (as you mention) than many operationalization techniques, like trying to put numbers on things.
I think my personal mental move is less like being aware of all the things I could have said, and more like being aware that the thing I was saying was a stand-in meant to imply lots of specific things that are implausible to articulate in their own form.
Or that the cloud of things all together feels plausible but each individual thing is implausible on its own. Related to bad arguments that have more moving parts than people have working memory slots, so debates go in circles.
Really like this explanation, especially the third example and conclusion.
I feel like a similar mental move helps me understand and work with all sorts of not-yet-operationalized arguments in my head (or that other people make). If I think people are “too X”, and then I think about what my other options to have said were there, it helps me triangulate about what thing I actually mean. I think this is much faster and more resilient to ladder-of-abstraction mistakes (as you mention) than many operationalization techniques, like trying to put numbers on things.
I think my personal mental move is less like being aware of all the things I could have said, and more like being aware that the thing I was saying was a stand-in meant to imply lots of specific things that are implausible to articulate in their own form.
Or that the cloud of things all together feels plausible but each individual thing is implausible on its own. Related to bad arguments that have more moving parts than people have working memory slots, so debates go in circles.