I apologize if it’s a bit tangential, but I want to point out that “should” statements are a common source of distortions (in cognitive behavioral therapy). It is often good to clarify the meaning of “should” in that context to see if it’s valid (is it a law of the universe? is it a human law? …). It often just means “I would prefer if”, which doesn’t bear as much weight...
David Burns explains this clearly and I was struck when he pointed out the linguistic heritage of “should” and how it connects to “scold”. Here’s one podcast episode on the topic (there are more, easy to find).
I wonder if some of the other distortions (such as “labelling” to sneak a morality judgement) could be subject to a similar treatment. For example, Scott Alexander talks about debates on labelling something a “disease”.
I apologize if it’s a bit tangential, but I want to point out that “should” statements are a common source of distortions (in cognitive behavioral therapy). It is often good to clarify the meaning of “should” in that context to see if it’s valid (is it a law of the universe? is it a human law? …). It often just means “I would prefer if”, which doesn’t bear as much weight...
David Burns explains this clearly and I was struck when he pointed out the linguistic heritage of “should” and how it connects to “scold”. Here’s one podcast episode on the topic (there are more, easy to find).
I wonder if some of the other distortions (such as “labelling” to sneak a morality judgement) could be subject to a similar treatment. For example, Scott Alexander talks about debates on labelling something a “disease”.
Nice parallel to CBT!
On a meta level, I really like comments which take the idea from a post and show a parallel idea from some other area.