I think you’re right that it’s really rare. I mean, we’re sort of looking for beliefs(1) about how beliefs(2) feel from the inside. They’d have to turn to the nerd side, at least, they’d have to for this one area.
My first thought is that trying to get them to dig deeper by asking them about their responses is likely to lead mostly to:
Free-associating off of your words (rather than your concepts) which will randomly push their buttons, ejecting the slips of paper stored therein.
Blurring the lines between what you really asked and the nearest equivalent that they already have a good answer for, and answering that instead.
Shutting down the conversation once you persist long enough that it’s difficult to avoid having to resort to on-the-fly production of sayings on the spot.
Or, if they’re really smart, they might welcome the challenge and just amuse themselves trying to come up with cool new sayings, using your words (rather than your concepts) as inspiration, sort of like the conversational equivalent of a fun impromptu jam session
Asking them to think and talk like nerds (“Come on, just for a second, please? Have you tried just not thinking like a political animal?”)...is a tricky thing.
I think a better avenue might be to narrow the group down to those people who are nerdy in at least one area of thought, namely, the area of thought dedicated to analyzing how nerds and normal people think. Then, those people can think nerdy about:
The other areas of their life, which they don’t think nerdy about. Like politics or religion (the tricky part here is that they’re likely to lose their detached, nerdy analysis as soon as the topic switches to something like that...)
The way they used to be. That’s what I’m doing, trying to remember how I used to think and distilling out the key changes which have occurred. It’s tricky because my thinking has changed so much that it’s hard to imagine thinking how I used to. For example, I do have an embarrassing draft of a post from when I first found LW and tried to write a justification for believing in God that avoided any errors the LW audience would pick at. I’ve noticed that it’s very dense, unclear, yet concept-sparse. It takes forever to explain a few simple concepts, because I’m using all the rest of the space to signal my intelligence and sophistication, probably in a subconscious attempt to argue along the lines of “smart people believe in God, too, so it should be considered a respectable option among the rationalist crowd.”
I think you’re right that it’s really rare. I mean, we’re sort of looking for beliefs(1) about how beliefs(2) feel from the inside. They’d have to turn to the nerd side, at least, they’d have to for this one area.
My first thought is that trying to get them to dig deeper by asking them about their responses is likely to lead mostly to:
Free-associating off of your words (rather than your concepts) which will randomly push their buttons, ejecting the slips of paper stored therein.
Blurring the lines between what you really asked and the nearest equivalent that they already have a good answer for, and answering that instead.
Shutting down the conversation once you persist long enough that it’s difficult to avoid having to resort to on-the-fly production of sayings on the spot.
Or, if they’re really smart, they might welcome the challenge and just amuse themselves trying to come up with cool new sayings, using your words (rather than your concepts) as inspiration, sort of like the conversational equivalent of a fun impromptu jam session
Asking them to think and talk like nerds (“Come on, just for a second, please? Have you tried just not thinking like a political animal?”)...is a tricky thing.
I think a better avenue might be to narrow the group down to those people who are nerdy in at least one area of thought, namely, the area of thought dedicated to analyzing how nerds and normal people think. Then, those people can think nerdy about:
The other areas of their life, which they don’t think nerdy about. Like politics or religion (the tricky part here is that they’re likely to lose their detached, nerdy analysis as soon as the topic switches to something like that...)
The way they used to be. That’s what I’m doing, trying to remember how I used to think and distilling out the key changes which have occurred. It’s tricky because my thinking has changed so much that it’s hard to imagine thinking how I used to. For example, I do have an embarrassing draft of a post from when I first found LW and tried to write a justification for believing in God that avoided any errors the LW audience would pick at. I’ve noticed that it’s very dense, unclear, yet concept-sparse. It takes forever to explain a few simple concepts, because I’m using all the rest of the space to signal my intelligence and sophistication, probably in a subconscious attempt to argue along the lines of “smart people believe in God, too, so it should be considered a respectable option among the rationalist crowd.”