I don’t believe the premised claim that active attempts to signal effective leadership are the predominate motive or cause of dominance of subordinates.
But it was the original premise of the quoted post that Patrick was objecting to, so whether we believe that premise or not is immaterial. This discussion is about whether the word “signaling” was used correctly in that post, not about whether that post was factually correct. A discussion about whether the predominate motive for dominating subordinates is to signal effective leadership would be interesting, but seems like a bit of a distraction when we’re trying to have a discussion about semantics and word choice.
That said, while I didn’t downvote (or, indeed, previously read) the comment, I would say that discussions purely about semantics and word choice are rarely worth the energy to have.
It’s generally a better idea to criticize actions rather than people: question your actions before you question yourself (the latter leads to a mindset which is more resistant to changing actions). But in any case, the most likely hypothesis, given that many of your posts have only one downvote, is that someone is serially downvoting you.
You’ve done nothing wrong (that I’ve seen), either someone is misusing the downvote as a retaliation tactic or LW is just bad at voting (or both). I’ve been there. It clearly hasn’t affected you over a long period of time, since your karma is in the positive hundreds (as opposed to mine, which hasn’t hit the 20 shreshold). But to be sure, try to avoid dubious assertions/axioms (or if you have to use one, affix the phrase “according to my beliefs” or something similar).
By my reasoning (or more accurately, by the reasoning of my inner Death Eater), if someone is serially downvoting me as a retaliation tactic, then that means I’ve done something wrong (or more accurately, that I’m BEING something wrong).
No one post you’ve said (regardless of how bad it could’ve been) would ever justify downvoting everything in retaliation, because that’s not what the downvote is meant to be used for. I can understand why you, as a rationalist, place doubt upon yourself by default, but there’s no need to defend your (theoretical) aggressor. Well-kept gardens die by pacifism, some die by moderation.
Yes, but what I’m saying is, I think that the retaliatory downvoting is an indication that I’m one of the weeds. (I’m used to this from other fora, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that I’m a weed here, too.)
I understand what you’re saying, and I can’t falsify your (claimed) experiences from other fora. Nonetheless, even if you are a “weed”, staying on lesswrong has to benefit someone. Law of bivalence: either you’re irrational or you’re rational. If you’re rational, others will benefit from your points you’ll make. If you’re irrational, you’ll benefit from the rational points others make. Either way, rationality increases. Q.E.D. (please no constructionism objections)
Oh no, I wasn’t referring to your earlier objections. I was just pre-empting the rejection of the law of bivalence that some bystander may invoke. On a semi-interesting side note, these recent comments haven’t been downvoted, so your aggressor has either stopped or temporarily left (hopefully the latter).
Well, one thing I learned from my childhood—the more viciously self-deprecating and self-abusive I can be, the more likely it is that my aggressors will leave me alone and just watch.
Ah, nice bit of wisdom there. You evade all of your abusers except for one: yourself. Ironically we’ve worked our way back to the topic of the article, because that can be useful as a signal; “don’t bother dominating me, I already have that covered”.
But it was the original premise of the quoted post that Patrick was objecting to, so whether we believe that premise or not is immaterial. This discussion is about whether the word “signaling” was used correctly in that post, not about whether that post was factually correct. A discussion about whether the predominate motive for dominating subordinates is to signal effective leadership would be interesting, but seems like a bit of a distraction when we’re trying to have a discussion about semantics and word choice.
I appear to be confused—I don’t understand why the previous post was downvoted. What am I saying that is incorrect or inappropriate?
I wouldn’t worry about a single downvote or two.
That said, while I didn’t downvote (or, indeed, previously read) the comment, I would say that discussions purely about semantics and word choice are rarely worth the energy to have.
Well, now everything I’ve said over the past few days has been downvoted.
Am I not the right sort of person to be posting on lesswrong?
It’s generally a better idea to criticize actions rather than people: question your actions before you question yourself (the latter leads to a mindset which is more resistant to changing actions). But in any case, the most likely hypothesis, given that many of your posts have only one downvote, is that someone is serially downvoting you.
You’ve done nothing wrong (that I’ve seen), either someone is misusing the downvote as a retaliation tactic or LW is just bad at voting (or both). I’ve been there. It clearly hasn’t affected you over a long period of time, since your karma is in the positive hundreds (as opposed to mine, which hasn’t hit the 20 shreshold). But to be sure, try to avoid dubious assertions/axioms (or if you have to use one, affix the phrase “according to my beliefs” or something similar).
By my reasoning (or more accurately, by the reasoning of my inner Death Eater), if someone is serially downvoting me as a retaliation tactic, then that means I’ve done something wrong (or more accurately, that I’m BEING something wrong).
No one post you’ve said (regardless of how bad it could’ve been) would ever justify downvoting everything in retaliation, because that’s not what the downvote is meant to be used for. I can understand why you, as a rationalist, place doubt upon yourself by default, but there’s no need to defend your (theoretical) aggressor. Well-kept gardens die by pacifism, some die by moderation.
Yes, but what I’m saying is, I think that the retaliatory downvoting is an indication that I’m one of the weeds. (I’m used to this from other fora, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that I’m a weed here, too.)
I understand what you’re saying, and I can’t falsify your (claimed) experiences from other fora. Nonetheless, even if you are a “weed”, staying on lesswrong has to benefit someone. Law of bivalence: either you’re irrational or you’re rational. If you’re rational, others will benefit from your points you’ll make. If you’re irrational, you’ll benefit from the rational points others make. Either way, rationality increases. Q.E.D. (please no constructionism objections)
My objections aren’t constructionist; like I said, I have an inner Death-Eater that keeps screaming “Weaklings should suffer!”.
Oh no, I wasn’t referring to your earlier objections. I was just pre-empting the rejection of the law of bivalence that some bystander may invoke. On a semi-interesting side note, these recent comments haven’t been downvoted, so your aggressor has either stopped or temporarily left (hopefully the latter).
Well, one thing I learned from my childhood—the more viciously self-deprecating and self-abusive I can be, the more likely it is that my aggressors will leave me alone and just watch.
Ah, nice bit of wisdom there. You evade all of your abusers except for one: yourself. Ironically we’ve worked our way back to the topic of the article, because that can be useful as a signal; “don’t bother dominating me, I already have that covered”.
That was partially deliberate; I derive wry amusement from taking things meta and then bringing them back around.