Well, the whole example is a fictional pastiche. I didn’t force myself to make it super real because I didn’t think people would doubt that it was sufficiently realistic. If you want to know a real example of a Steve, it’s me a bunch of times when I first talked to Anna Salamon about various subjects.
Okay, I thought that might be the case but I wasn’t sure because the way it was worded made it sound like the first interaction was real. (“You can see I was showing off my mastery of basic economics.” doesn’t have any “[in this hypothetical]” clarification and “This seemed like a good move to me at the time” also seems like something that could happen in real life but an unusual choice for a hypothetical).
To clarify though, it’s not quite “doubt that it’s sufficiently realistic”. Where your simulated conversation differs from my experience is easily explained by differing subcommunication and preexisting relationships, so it’s not “it doesn’t work this way” but “it doesn’t *have to* work this way”. The other part of it is that even if the transcript was exactly something that happened, I don’t see any satisfying resolution. If it ended in “Huh, I guess I didn’t actually have any coherent point after all”, it would be much stronger evidence that they didn’t actually have a coherent point—even if the conversation were entirely fictional but plausible.
If it ended in “Huh, I guess I didn’t actually have any coherent point after all”, it would be much stronger evidence that they didn’t actually have a coherent point—even if the conversation were entirely fictional but plausible.
Ok I think I see your point! I’ve edited the dialogue to add:
Steve thinks for a little while...
Steve: I don’t know all the exploitative shit Uber does ok? I just think Uber is a greedy company.
Re (3):
Well, the whole example is a fictional pastiche. I didn’t force myself to make it super real because I didn’t think people would doubt that it was sufficiently realistic. If you want to know a real example of a Steve, it’s me a bunch of times when I first talked to Anna Salamon about various subjects.
Okay, I thought that might be the case but I wasn’t sure because the way it was worded made it sound like the first interaction was real. (“You can see I was showing off my mastery of basic economics.” doesn’t have any “[in this hypothetical]” clarification and “This seemed like a good move to me at the time” also seems like something that could happen in real life but an unusual choice for a hypothetical).
To clarify though, it’s not quite “doubt that it’s sufficiently realistic”. Where your simulated conversation differs from my experience is easily explained by differing subcommunication and preexisting relationships, so it’s not “it doesn’t work this way” but “it doesn’t *have to* work this way”. The other part of it is that even if the transcript was exactly something that happened, I don’t see any satisfying resolution. If it ended in “Huh, I guess I didn’t actually have any coherent point after all”, it would be much stronger evidence that they didn’t actually have a coherent point—even if the conversation were entirely fictional but plausible.
Ok I think I see your point! I’ve edited the dialogue to add: