It seems the main reason to put serious intellectual resources behind NTL is because you get to feel justified in the fact that you’re telling the truth. At least liars will (generally, in my experience) actually feel bad when you catch them. If you have a reputation for NTL, unless I think I’m much, much smarter than you, I can’t trust you, and even then I probably can’t trust you unless I cross examine you after any vaguely ambiguous statement. Liars may have less respect for the truth, but if they at least feel guilty and generally try to avoid lying, they have more respect for me than someone who has no problem saying anything technically true to get what he wants.
I also don’t think the whistling in the wind thing is, well, true. Or, at least, I think it’s really, really hard to get a reputation for being a liar, and, even if someone gets one, that person’s words are still of some value, unless they’re actually pathological. I don’t think I’ve really heard of anyone who has a real reputation for lying. And a few lies here and there won’t do it, since if they did, pretty much everyone ever would have a reputation for being a liar. I’d think it’s gotta be very big, very wrong, and relatively visible among the relevant sphere of people, however large or small that sphere might be.
It seems the main reason to put serious intellectual resources behind NTL is because you get to feel justified in the fact that you’re telling the truth. At least liars will (generally, in my experience) actually feel bad when you catch them. If you have a reputation for NTL, unless I think I’m much, much smarter than you, I can’t trust you, and even then I probably can’t trust you unless I cross examine you after any vaguely ambiguous statement. Liars may have less respect for the truth, but if they at least feel guilty and generally try to avoid lying, they have more respect for me than someone who has no problem saying anything technically true to get what he wants.
I also don’t think the whistling in the wind thing is, well, true. Or, at least, I think it’s really, really hard to get a reputation for being a liar, and, even if someone gets one, that person’s words are still of some value, unless they’re actually pathological. I don’t think I’ve really heard of anyone who has a real reputation for lying. And a few lies here and there won’t do it, since if they did, pretty much everyone ever would have a reputation for being a liar. I’d think it’s gotta be very big, very wrong, and relatively visible among the relevant sphere of people, however large or small that sphere might be.