making a weaker version of the argument than the person you are talking to could have, because you misunderstand their position
Steelmanning generates hypotheticals to figure out. It’s less useful when thinking about the hypotheticals doesn’t teach you new things. Even actually being “stronger” is relatively unimportant, it’s a heuristic for finding good hypotheticals, not a reference to what makes them good. Understanding someone’s position or remaining on-topic is even less relevant, since these are neither the heuristic nor what makes the hypotheticals generated with it valuable.
In my comment I was using “strength” as a catch-all-term for general usefulness of the argument, without going too deep into the nuances. I don’t think that this approximation failed to deliver the point.
Steelmanning generates hypotheticals to figure out. It’s less useful when thinking about the hypotheticals doesn’t teach you new things. Even actually being “stronger” is relatively unimportant, it’s a heuristic for finding good hypotheticals, not a reference to what makes them good. Understanding someone’s position or remaining on-topic is even less relevant, since these are neither the heuristic nor what makes the hypotheticals generated with it valuable.
You are correct.
In my comment I was using “strength” as a catch-all-term for general usefulness of the argument, without going too deep into the nuances. I don’t think that this approximation failed to deliver the point.