Male/female pronouns

[LivingAngryCheese]

You can and should proceed into intelligent thought after initial assumptions, but that still doesn't change the fact that we have those initial assumptions to begin with. Not to mention, there are times when further information simply doesn't exist, and you still resort to making assumptions, and sometimes you'll be wrong. Given all of these factors, the other person should be able to accept that assumptions are a part of life and not be offended. Becoming angry over it is the easiest way to make someone unsympathetic to their situation.

They might not be angry. That doesn't mean they won't be hurt by it emotionally.

 

[Strikingwolf]

This is true. But this is not the end of the discussion.

I strongly suggest you read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. It's written by someone whose pen name is "Less Wrong" -- because he is focusing on addressing the errors and problems known to exist in the brain, faults in the brain hardware and core operating system, faults that were essential for survival when we did not control our world, faults that hurt us now.

During this story -- it's an alternate universe Harry Potter story -- Harry has to go through all sorts of common errors that people make in reasoning, all the time trying to be less and less wrong in his thinking. Growing up at age 11, because by the time the story is over, it becomes a life-and-death matter.

The fundamental difference: What if Petunia, instead of marrying Dursley, decided that he was a horrible person, and instead, fell in love with a scientist? When James and Lilly died, Harry went to a relative where he learned scientific thinking, and was loved.

By the time it's over? Magic plus science equal extinction-level threat.

The point is, our brain is hardwired to make choices that are all about "Survive this next immediate threat to our life so we can get back to making babies". As soon as you want to go beyond that, you need to be aware of your brain's faults, and work around them.

Life is not just about making babies and protecting them while they grow up. Yet that is all our brains really know how to do. Everything else is stuff added-on by the end user without any warranty from the manufacturer, and like any good hacker, people have learned how to make that brain work a lot better by tweaking things.

http://lesswrong.com

 

[Strikingwolf]

In other news, yes we are warranted to make assumptions, but not where other information suits. For example referring by name not pronoun or asking the person themselves their preferred pronoun

 

[Strikingwolf]

http://lesswrong.com

Btw these aren't the same people, just an interesting site and that was a nice place to link to it

 

[keybounce]

http://hpmor.com/

HPMOR.com is an authorized, ad-free mirror of Eliezer Yudkowsky‘s epic Harry Potter fanfic, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (originally under the pen name Less Wrong)

More Info

My pen name derives from the website Less Wrong, a collaborative blog devoted to improving the art of human rationality.

So, it's not completely disjointed sets of people, and the focus of both groups (see the Center for Applied Rationality link from hpmor.com) are similar.

 

[Strikingwolf]

http://hpmor.com/





So, it's not completely disjointed sets of people, and the focus of both groups (see the Center for Applied Rationality link from hpmor.com) are similar.

Ah yes you are correct, interesting