Born August 1991 (extrapolate age from there). Doesn’t identify with gender (also does not identify as nonbinary) but presents male out of habit/convenience. Lives alone. Carries on imaginary conversations out loud to think due to lack of inner monologue. Aspiring aspiring rationalist.
musicmage4114
Karma: 56
Glide #1: Learning Rationality from Absurdity
I’m curious where you draw your writing knowledge from that seems to consider “source of inspiration” to be, at best, superfluous information? I can’t say I’ve encountered such a guideline before. I suppose I could see an argument that such information doesn’t belong in a particular type of writing (like formal writing or technical writing), but that would then require this piece to be the specified type of writing, which I anticipate it likely is not.
Personally, I enjoy hearing about people’s sources of inspiration, because such a source might also be capable of providing inspiration to me. Thus, “Where did the author come up with this idea?” is certainly a question I could be said to have.
Given that, perhaps you are describing the questions you personally have, rather than those of all readers?
While I agree that “co-proofs” as you’ve described them are interesting, I’m not sure on how useful they are as a concept. While a lack of counter-evidence certainly helps when we want to argue in favor of a hypothesis, if there isn’t enough evidence to bring that hypothesis to our attention in the first place, then we’re privileging that hypothesis.
To speak to the example you give, while it is true that for any given person, not having an alibi is a co-proof of their involvement in a crime, there are likely vast numbers of people who don’t have alibis, so absent additional proof that lets us pick from among those without alibis, the co-proof doesn’t really get us anywhere by itself.