Strong disagree that I’m describing a deeply dysfunctional gym; I barely described the gym at all and it’s way overconfident/projection-y to extrapolate “deeply dysfunctional” from what I said.
Well, you mentioned the scenario as an illustration of a “particularly corrosive” attitude. It therefore seems reasonable to fill in the unspecified details (like just how disruptive the guy’s behavior is, how much of everyone’s time he wastes, how many instructors are driven away in shame or irritation) with pretty negative ones—to assume the gym has in fact been corroded, being at least, say, moderately dysfunctional as a result.
Maybe “deeply dysfunctional” was going too far, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to call that “way overconfident/projection-y”. Nor does the difference between “deeply dysfunctional” and “moderately dysfunctional” matter for jimmy’s point.
votes
FYI, I’m inclined to upvote jimmy’s comment because of the second paragraph: it seems to be the perfect solution to the described situation (and to all hypothetical dysfunction in the gym, minor or major), and has some generalizability (look for cheap tests of beliefs, challenge people to do them). And your comment seems to be calling jimmy out inappropriately (as I’ve argued above), so I’m inclined to at least disagree-vote it.
“Let’s imagine that these unspecified details, which could be anywhere within a VERY wide range, are specifically such that the original point is ridiculous, in support of concluding that the original point is ridiculous” does not seem like a reasonable move to me.
Yes, Jimmy was either projecting (filling in unspecified details with dysfunction, where function would also fit) or making an unjustified claim (that any gym matching your description must be dysfunctional). I think projection is more likely. Neither of these options is great.
But it’s not clear how important that mistake is to his comment. I expect people were mostly reacting to paragraphs 2 and 3, and you could cut paragraph 1 out and they’d stand by themselves.
Do the more-interesting parts of the comment implicitly rely on the projection/unjustified-claim? Also not clear to me. I do think the comment is overstated. (“The way to jam”?) But e.g. “the problem isn’t so much the difficulty as the inability to overcome the difficulty” seems… well, I’d say this is overstated too, but I do think it’s pointing at something that seems valuable to keep in mind even if we accept that the gym is functional.
So I don’t think it’s unreasonable that the parent got significantly upvoted, though I didn’t upvote it myself; and I don’t think it’s unreasonable that your correction didn’t, since it looks correct to me but like it’s not responding to the main point.
Maybe you think paragraphs 2 and 3 were relying more on the projection than it currently seems to me? In that case you actually are responding to what-I-see-as the main point. But if so I’d need it spelled out in more detail.
Yes, Jimmy was either projecting (filling in unspecified details with dysfunction, where function would also fit) or making an unjustified claim (that any gym matching your description must be dysfunctional). I think projection is more likely. Neither of these options is great.
FWIW, that is a claim I’m fully willing and able to justify. It’s hard to disclaim all the possible misinterpretations in a brief comment (e.g. “deeply” != “very”), but I do stand by a pretty strong interpretation of what I said as being true, justifiable, important, and relevant.
Well, you mentioned the scenario as an illustration of a “particularly corrosive” attitude. It therefore seems reasonable to fill in the unspecified details (like just how disruptive the guy’s behavior is, how much of everyone’s time he wastes, how many instructors are driven away in shame or irritation) with pretty negative ones—to assume the gym has in fact been corroded, being at least, say, moderately dysfunctional as a result.
Maybe “deeply dysfunctional” was going too far, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to call that “way overconfident/projection-y”. Nor does the difference between “deeply dysfunctional” and “moderately dysfunctional” matter for jimmy’s point.
FYI, I’m inclined to upvote jimmy’s comment because of the second paragraph: it seems to be the perfect solution to the described situation (and to all hypothetical dysfunction in the gym, minor or major), and has some generalizability (look for cheap tests of beliefs, challenge people to do them). And your comment seems to be calling jimmy out inappropriately (as I’ve argued above), so I’m inclined to at least disagree-vote it.
“Let’s imagine that these unspecified details, which could be anywhere within a VERY wide range, are specifically such that the original point is ridiculous, in support of concluding that the original point is ridiculous” does not seem like a reasonable move to me.
Separately:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/WsvpkCekuxYSkwsuG/overconfidence-is-deceit
I think my feeling here is:
Yes, Jimmy was either projecting (filling in unspecified details with dysfunction, where function would also fit) or making an unjustified claim (that any gym matching your description must be dysfunctional). I think projection is more likely. Neither of these options is great.
But it’s not clear how important that mistake is to his comment. I expect people were mostly reacting to paragraphs 2 and 3, and you could cut paragraph 1 out and they’d stand by themselves.
Do the more-interesting parts of the comment implicitly rely on the projection/unjustified-claim? Also not clear to me. I do think the comment is overstated. (“The way to jam”?) But e.g. “the problem isn’t so much the difficulty as the inability to overcome the difficulty” seems… well, I’d say this is overstated too, but I do think it’s pointing at something that seems valuable to keep in mind even if we accept that the gym is functional.
So I don’t think it’s unreasonable that the parent got significantly upvoted, though I didn’t upvote it myself; and I don’t think it’s unreasonable that your correction didn’t, since it looks correct to me but like it’s not responding to the main point.
Maybe you think paragraphs 2 and 3 were relying more on the projection than it currently seems to me? In that case you actually are responding to what-I-see-as the main point. But if so I’d need it spelled out in more detail.
FWIW, that is a claim I’m fully willing and able to justify. It’s hard to disclaim all the possible misinterpretations in a brief comment (e.g. “deeply” != “very”), but I do stand by a pretty strong interpretation of what I said as being true, justifiable, important, and relevant.