To pick one that came up recently, though, here’s a discussion of one of the advantages of trust in a forum like this one, related to trolley problems and similar hypotheticals.
Another one that comes up far more often is other people’s willingness to assume, when I say things that have both a sensible and a nonsensical interpretation, that I mean the former.
It’s not clear to me that these attributes are strongly (or even positively) correlated with willingness to “stick up” for a conversation partner, since typically this behavioral tendency has more to do with whether a person is socially aggressive or timid. So by doing that, you’re mostly signaling that you’re not timid, with “being a good discussion partner” a much weaker inference, if people think in that direction at all. (This is the impression I have of wedrifid, for example.)
What kind of alliances do you have in mind?
I didn’t have any specific kind of alliances in mind, but just thought the question might be worth asking. Now that I think about it, it might be for example that you’re looking to make real-life friends, or contacts for advancing your career, or hoping to be recruit by SIAI.
It’s not clear to me that these attributes are strongly (or even positively) correlated with willingness to “stick up” for a conversation partner, since typically this behavioral tendency has more to do with whether a person is socially aggressive or timid. So by doing that, you’re mostly signaling that you’re not timid
This model of the world does an injustice to a class of people I hold in high esteem (those who are willing to defend others against certain types of social aggression even at cost to themselves) and doesn’t seem to be a very accurate description of reality. A lot of information—and information I consider important at that—can be gained about a person simply by seeing who they choose to defend in which circumstances. Sure, excessive ‘timidity’ can serve to suppress this kind of behavior and so information can be gleaned about social confidence and assertiveness by seeing how freely they intervene. But to take this to the extreme of saying you are mostly signalling that you’re not timid seems to be a mistake.
In my own experience—from back when I was timid in the extreme—the sort of “sticking up for”, jumping to the defense against (unfair or undesirable) aggression is one thing that could break me out of my shell. To say that my defiance of my nature at that time was really just me being not timid after all would be to make a lie of the battle of rather significant opposing forces within the mind of that former self.
(This is the impression I have of wedrifid, for example.)
Merely that I am bold and that my behavioral tendencies and strategies in this kind of area are just signals of that boldness? Dave’s model seems far more accurate and useful in this case.
Merely that I am bold and that my behavioral tendencies and strategies in this kind of area are just signals of that boldness? Dave’s model seems far more accurate and useful in this case.
I find that my brain doesn’t automatically build detailed models of LW participants, even the most prominent ones like yourself, and I haven’t found a strong reason to do so consciously, using explicit reasoning, except when I engage in discussion with someone, and even then I only try to model the part of their mind most relevant to the discussion at hand.
I realize that I may be engaging in typical mind fallacy in thinking that most other people are probably like me in this regard. If I am, I’d be curious to find out.
Fair enough; it may be that I overestimate the value of what I’m calling trust here.
Just for my own clarity, when you say that what I’m doing is signaling my lack of timidity, are you referring to my actual behavior on this site, or are you referring to the behavior we’ve been discussing on this thread (or are they equivalent)?
I’m not especially looking to make real-life friends, though there are folks here who I wouldn’t mind getting to know in real life. Ditto work contacts. I have no interest in working for SI.
It’s not clear to me that these attributes are strongly (or even positively) correlated with willingness to “stick up” for a conversation partner, since typically this behavioral tendency has more to do with whether a person is socially aggressive or timid. So by doing that, you’re mostly signaling that you’re not timid, with “being a good discussion partner” a much weaker inference, if people think in that direction at all. (This is the impression I have of wedrifid, for example.)
I didn’t have any specific kind of alliances in mind, but just thought the question might be worth asking. Now that I think about it, it might be for example that you’re looking to make real-life friends, or contacts for advancing your career, or hoping to be recruit by SIAI.
This model of the world does an injustice to a class of people I hold in high esteem (those who are willing to defend others against certain types of social aggression even at cost to themselves) and doesn’t seem to be a very accurate description of reality. A lot of information—and information I consider important at that—can be gained about a person simply by seeing who they choose to defend in which circumstances. Sure, excessive ‘timidity’ can serve to suppress this kind of behavior and so information can be gleaned about social confidence and assertiveness by seeing how freely they intervene. But to take this to the extreme of saying you are mostly signalling that you’re not timid seems to be a mistake.
In my own experience—from back when I was timid in the extreme—the sort of “sticking up for”, jumping to the defense against (unfair or undesirable) aggression is one thing that could break me out of my shell. To say that my defiance of my nature at that time was really just me being not timid after all would be to make a lie of the battle of rather significant opposing forces within the mind of that former self.
Merely that I am bold and that my behavioral tendencies and strategies in this kind of area are just signals of that boldness? Dave’s model seems far more accurate and useful in this case.
I find that my brain doesn’t automatically build detailed models of LW participants, even the most prominent ones like yourself, and I haven’t found a strong reason to do so consciously, using explicit reasoning, except when I engage in discussion with someone, and even then I only try to model the part of their mind most relevant to the discussion at hand.
I realize that I may be engaging in typical mind fallacy in thinking that most other people are probably like me in this regard. If I am, I’d be curious to find out.
Fair enough; it may be that I overestimate the value of what I’m calling trust here.
Just for my own clarity, when you say that what I’m doing is signaling my lack of timidity, are you referring to my actual behavior on this site, or are you referring to the behavior we’ve been discussing on this thread (or are they equivalent)?
I’m not especially looking to make real-life friends, though there are folks here who I wouldn’t mind getting to know in real life. Ditto work contacts. I have no interest in working for SI.
I was talking about the abstract behavior that we were discussing.