This post seems predicated on the notion that we’ve established a gospel to preach, and we’re just not preaching it. What’s the gospel? “Rationality”? “Truth”? The Sequences? I don’t buy it. There’s no finished product here to sell.
I’m reminded of conversations I’ve had with people who express deep frustration with Obama’s inability to cajole Congress into moving quickly on health care reform, but don’t have a good answer to the question, “Why do you think Congress will come up with a workable solution to the problem?”
The contention of my post is that rationalist personality types are often bad at selling their beliefs to others, due to their reluctance to use what they believe to be “dark arts”. Perhaps I should have expressed this meaning more literally in the post’s title—the concept of “a product to sell” is really just a metaphor.
Ah, that definitely scales down my objection, but it’s still present in a similar form. At what point does one decide that a belief is ready for “sale”? If you have plenty of good reasons for believing something, then those are the arguments you want to field. I’m having trouble seeing what would convince me to go further and risk epistemic backwash, other than contrived scenarios designed to maximize certainty. In the worst-case scenario, you might steamroll right over a valid counter-argument, and miss a chance to be proven wrong under conditions of high confidence—one of the most valuable learning experiences I know of.
I guess what I’m looking for is a solid rebuttal to this advice from the Supreme Leader:
I have sometimes been approached by people who say “How do I convince people to wear green shoes? I don’t know how to argue it,” and I reply, “Ask yourself honestly whether you should wear green shoes; then make a list of which thoughts actually move you to decide one way or another; then figure out how to explain or argue them, recursing as necessary.”
This post seems predicated on the notion that we’ve established a gospel to preach, and we’re just not preaching it. What’s the gospel? “Rationality”? “Truth”? The Sequences? I don’t buy it. There’s no finished product here to sell.
I’m reminded of conversations I’ve had with people who express deep frustration with Obama’s inability to cajole Congress into moving quickly on health care reform, but don’t have a good answer to the question, “Why do you think Congress will come up with a workable solution to the problem?”
The contention of my post is that rationalist personality types are often bad at selling their beliefs to others, due to their reluctance to use what they believe to be “dark arts”. Perhaps I should have expressed this meaning more literally in the post’s title—the concept of “a product to sell” is really just a metaphor.
Ah, that definitely scales down my objection, but it’s still present in a similar form. At what point does one decide that a belief is ready for “sale”? If you have plenty of good reasons for believing something, then those are the arguments you want to field. I’m having trouble seeing what would convince me to go further and risk epistemic backwash, other than contrived scenarios designed to maximize certainty. In the worst-case scenario, you might steamroll right over a valid counter-argument, and miss a chance to be proven wrong under conditions of high confidence—one of the most valuable learning experiences I know of.
I guess what I’m looking for is a solid rebuttal to this advice from the Supreme Leader:
Well that’s obvious. Just tell them the Supreme Leader wears them.