One hypothesis is that people can’t offer counter-arguments—but they don’t like the conclusions—because they are contrary to the received wisdom. That creates cognitive dissonance in them—and they have to find an outlet.
Really, never write comments proffering self-aggrandising explanations of why your comments are being badly received. You are way too smart and thoughtful to go all green ink on us like this.
It may amuse you to know, I am told by my lawyer partners that a really astonishing proportion of crazy people who write to you really do use green ink. It seems astonishing to imagine that there really could be a correlation between sanity and favoured ink colour.
I should be astonished, but I’m not. A statistically unlikely proportion of the autistics I know have a strong preference for the color purple (and I don’t think I know any NTs with that preference), so the idea that color preference is a function of neurotype doesn’t seem too odd to me.
Incidentally, I hope you don’t mean the “self-aggrandising” / “green ink” comments literally!
Disagreeing with majorities is often a bad sign. Delusional individuals may create “green ink” explanations of why others are foolish enough to disagree with them. However, critics may also find themselves disagreeing with majorities—for example when in the company of the associates of those being criticised. That is fairly often my role here. I am someone not in the thrall of the prevailing reality distortion field. Under those circumstances disagreements do not have the same significance.
Disagreeing with majorities is often a bad sign. Delusional individuals may create “green ink” explanations of why others are foolish enough to disagree with them. However, critics may also find themselves disagreeing with majorities—for example when in the company of the associates of those being criticised. That is fairly often my role here. I am someone not in the thrall of the prevailing reality distortion field. Under those circumstances disagreements do not have the same significance.
The indicated sections are green ink—claims which are easy to make regardless of the rectitude of your opinion, and which therefore are made by fools with higher-than-normal frequency.
Arguing that fools make statement X with greater-than-average frequency is a rather feeble argument that someone making statement X is a fool. I am not sure why you are even bothering to present it.
Well, the first bold section is a true, general and relevant statement.
I won’t say what my estimate of a person’s rationality would be, given only the information that they had written the second bold section somewhere on the internet; but it wouldn’t be 100% crank, either.
Well, the first bold section is a true, general and relevant statement.
That doesn’t mean the ink isn’t green. In this particular case, he is persistently claiming that his remarks are being attacked due to various sorts of biases on the parts of those reading it, and he is doing so:
without detailed evidence, and
instead of either (a) clarifying his remarks or (b) dropping the subject.
That’s green ink.
Edited for pronouns.
Edited for pronouns again, properly this time. Curse you, Picornaviridae Rhinovirus!
Someone disagreeing with other people and explaining why he thinks they are wrong is not “green ink”—unless that individual is behaving in a crazy fashion.
I don’t think anyone has any evidence that my behaviour is anything other than rational and sane in this case. At any rate, so far no such evidence has been presented AFAICS. So: I think “green ink” is a fairly clear mis-characterisation.
No, green ink covers a much wider span of writing than that. And honestly, no matter what disagreements you find yourself having with a group of people, and this would include circumstances where you were the only rationalist in a room full of crystal healers, you should never find yourself uttering the phrase “I am someone not in the thrall of the prevailing reality distortion field”.
I think that is just a difference of personalities.
If I am in a region where there’s a reality distortion field in action, I don’t necessarily avoid pointing that out for the sake of everyone’s feelings—or for some other reason.
That would let the participants continue in their trance—and that might not be good for them, or others they interact with.
You can point something out, but it is an act of petty sabotage to repeat the same statements over and over again with no apparent effect but to irritation of the public. Even if you are in fact right, and the other guys are lunatics.
I have nothing to say at the moment regarding your actual argumentation upthread—what I am criticizing is your reaction to the downvoting et seq. I don’t care what you call it: stop.
You are acting as if you are obviously correct. That is true far less often than you suppose. If you are not obviously correct, retaliating against the people who attacked you is counterproductive. Better is to expand your analysis or drop the subject altogether.
You choose to perpetuate the cycle. OK, then, I will drop out first. This thread has been dragged into the gutter—and I am not interested in following it down there. Bye.
Confused about pronouns even after your edit: who is “you”? My remarks aren’t being downvoted, so I assume “you” doesn’t mean me. And you used “he” to refer to Tim Tyler, so I assume “you” doesn’t mean him.
Yes I am mentally ill.
I had disclosed this on my own website.
I am not delusional.
For the disabled, carelessly throwing around psychiatric terms when you are not a practicing psychiatrist is foul and abusive.
I have very little formal education which is common among the mentally disabled.
I eagerly await your hierarchical models for the complexity of “AI”, and your elegant algorithms for its implementation.
I imagine your benefactors are also eagerly waiting.
Don’t disappoint them or they may pull their wasted funding.
I will continue hobbling along my “delusional” way, then after a while I will probably apply for the funding they are wasting on this place.
Of course the algorithm is the key, and that I will not be publishing.
Best of luck.
May the best crazy win.
One hypothesis is that people can’t offer counter-arguments—but they don’t like the conclusions—because they are contrary to the received wisdom. That creates cognitive dissonance in them—and they have to find an outlet.
Really, never write comments proffering self-aggrandising explanations of why your comments are being badly received. You are way too smart and thoughtful to go all green ink on us like this.
Hah! I had to look up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_ink
I like my comment—and think it shows my sense of humour. If you were among those who were not amused, then sorry! ;-)
I do usually keep off karma-related sub-threads. They are mostly noise to me. However, here, I was asked a direct question.
Anyway, if people here who disagree with me can’t be bothered to argue, I don’t see how will they ever learn anything ;-) <--
It may amuse you to know, I am told by my lawyer partners that a really astonishing proportion of crazy people who write to you really do use green ink. It seems astonishing to imagine that there really could be a correlation between sanity and favoured ink colour.
Yikes, did anyone else notice the amount of green on this site?
I was just noticing that myself. Withdrawing my request to change the color scheme.
We all write in black, though. :P
Mostly.
I should be astonished, but I’m not. A statistically unlikely proportion of the autistics I know have a strong preference for the color purple (and I don’t think I know any NTs with that preference), so the idea that color preference is a function of neurotype doesn’t seem too odd to me.
As an Asperger’s person who loves purple (and dislikes green) this thread is quite amusing.
This is the first place I have ever seen anyone say that green ink writers use actual green ink. Added to RW!
Incidentally, I hope you don’t mean the “self-aggrandising” / “green ink” comments literally!
Disagreeing with majorities is often a bad sign. Delusional individuals may create “green ink” explanations of why others are foolish enough to disagree with them. However, critics may also find themselves disagreeing with majorities—for example when in the company of the associates of those being criticised. That is fairly often my role here. I am someone not in the thrall of the prevailing reality distortion field. Under those circumstances disagreements do not have the same significance.
The indicated sections are green ink—claims which are easy to make regardless of the rectitude of your opinion, and which therefore are made by fools with higher-than-normal frequency.
I recommend you check with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_ink
Arguing that fools make statement X with greater-than-average frequency is a rather feeble argument that someone making statement X is a fool. I am not sure why you are even bothering to present it.
Well, the first bold section is a true, general and relevant statement.
I won’t say what my estimate of a person’s rationality would be, given only the information that they had written the second bold section somewhere on the internet; but it wouldn’t be 100% crank, either.
That doesn’t mean the ink isn’t green. In this particular case, he is persistently claiming that his remarks are being attacked due to various sorts of biases on the parts of those reading it, and he is doing so:
without detailed evidence, and
instead of either (a) clarifying his remarks or (b) dropping the subject.
That’s green ink.
Edited for pronouns.
Edited for pronouns again, properly this time. Curse you, Picornaviridae Rhinovirus!
I think http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_ink makes it pretty clear that green ink is barely-coherent rambling coming from nutcases.
Someone disagreeing with other people and explaining why he thinks they are wrong is not “green ink”—unless that individual is behaving in a crazy fashion.
I don’t think anyone has any evidence that my behaviour is anything other than rational and sane in this case. At any rate, so far no such evidence has been presented AFAICS. So: I think “green ink” is a fairly clear mis-characterisation.
No, green ink covers a much wider span of writing than that. And honestly, no matter what disagreements you find yourself having with a group of people, and this would include circumstances where you were the only rationalist in a room full of crystal healers, you should never find yourself uttering the phrase “I am someone not in the thrall of the prevailing reality distortion field”.
Um—why not?
I think that is just a difference of personalities.
If I am in a region where there’s a reality distortion field in action, I don’t necessarily avoid pointing that out for the sake of everyone’s feelings—or for some other reason.
That would let the participants continue in their trance—and that might not be good for them, or others they interact with.
You can point something out, but it is an act of petty sabotage to repeat the same statements over and over again with no apparent effect but to irritation of the public. Even if you are in fact right, and the other guys are lunatics.
Hi, Vladimir! I don’t know what you are talking about, why you are bothering to say it—and nor do I much care.
I have nothing to say at the moment regarding your actual argumentation upthread—what I am criticizing is your reaction to the downvoting et seq. I don’t care what you call it: stop.
What was wrong with that?
Someone asked me why I was being downvoted.
I gave them my best hypothesis.
You want me to lie? You think my hypothesis was inaccurate? What exactly is the problem you have?
On the other hand, if you genuinely want me to stop defending my actions, it would help if people first stop attacking them—perhaps starting with you.
You are acting as if you are obviously correct. That is true far less often than you suppose. If you are not obviously correct, retaliating against the people who attacked you is counterproductive. Better is to expand your analysis or drop the subject altogether.
You choose to perpetuate the cycle. OK, then, I will drop out first. This thread has been dragged into the gutter—and I am not interested in following it down there. Bye.
Confused about pronouns even after your edit: who is “you”? My remarks aren’t being downvoted, so I assume “you” doesn’t mean me. And you used “he” to refer to Tim Tyler, so I assume “you” doesn’t mean him.
I apologize, I r dum.
Yes I am mentally ill. I had disclosed this on my own website. I am not delusional. For the disabled, carelessly throwing around psychiatric terms when you are not a practicing psychiatrist is foul and abusive. I have very little formal education which is common among the mentally disabled. I eagerly await your hierarchical models for the complexity of “AI”, and your elegant algorithms for its implementation. I imagine your benefactors are also eagerly waiting. Don’t disappoint them or they may pull their wasted funding. I will continue hobbling along my “delusional” way, then after a while I will probably apply for the funding they are wasting on this place. Of course the algorithm is the key, and that I will not be publishing. Best of luck. May the best crazy win.