For example, my first reaction to this comment was to pull out my dictionary and argue that my use of “impulsive” was right, because I knew what I meant when I wrote it and could find that meaning in a dictionary. Instead, I decided that it takes two to communicate, and that if you disagreed with the implications of the word, it was the wrong word to choose. So I abandoned the word in an attempt to become less wrong.
Kahneman wrote, in Thinking, Fast and Slow, that he wrote a book for gossips and critics — rather than a book for movers and shakers — because people are better at identifying other people’s biases than their own. I took this as meaning that his intention was to make his readers better equipped to criticize others’ biases correctly; and thus, to make people who wish to avoid being criticized need to debias themselves to accomplish this.
Presumably, part of the reason that a commenter would avoid making a dictionary argument on LW is if that commenter knows that LWers are unlikely to tolerate dictionary arguments. Teaching people about biases may lead them to be less tolerant of biases in others; and if we seek to avoid doing things that are odious to our fellows, we will be forced to check our own biases before someone else checks them for us.
Knowing about biases can hurt you chiefly if you’re the only one who’s sophisticated about biases and can argue fluently about them. But we should expect that in an environment with a raised sanity waterline, where everyone knows about biases and is prepared to point them out, people will perpetrate less egregious bias than in an environment where they can get away with it socially.
(OTOH, I don’t take this to excuse people saying “Nah nah nah, I caught you in a conjunction fallacy, you’re a poopy stupid head.” We should be intolerant of biased arguments, not of people who make them — so long as they’re learning.)
Good point. I normally don’t like accusing others of bias, and I will continue to try to refrain from doing so when I’m involved in something that looks like a debate, but I agree that it is useful information that should not be discouraged.
Kahneman wrote, in Thinking, Fast and Slow, that he wrote a book for gossips and critics — rather than a book for movers and shakers — because people are better at identifying other people’s biases than their own. I took this as meaning that his intention was to make his readers better equipped to criticize others’ biases correctly; and thus, to make people who wish to avoid being criticized need to debias themselves to accomplish this.
Presumably, part of the reason that a commenter would avoid making a dictionary argument on LW is if that commenter knows that LWers are unlikely to tolerate dictionary arguments. Teaching people about biases may lead them to be less tolerant of biases in others; and if we seek to avoid doing things that are odious to our fellows, we will be forced to check our own biases before someone else checks them for us.
Knowing about biases can hurt you chiefly if you’re the only one who’s sophisticated about biases and can argue fluently about them. But we should expect that in an environment with a raised sanity waterline, where everyone knows about biases and is prepared to point them out, people will perpetrate less egregious bias than in an environment where they can get away with it socially.
(OTOH, I don’t take this to excuse people saying “Nah nah nah, I caught you in a conjunction fallacy, you’re a poopy stupid head.” We should be intolerant of biased arguments, not of people who make them — so long as they’re learning.)
Good point. I normally don’t like accusing others of bias, and I will continue to try to refrain from doing so when I’m involved in something that looks like a debate, but I agree that it is useful information that should not be discouraged.