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A bloody-minded willingness to argue over meaningless technical minutiae is one of the mighty fences separating engineering from philosophy. It subtly undermin
by logfromblammo 8y ago
A bloody-minded willingness to argue over meaningless technical minutiae is one of the mighty fences separating engineering from philosophy. It subtly undermines the supposedly profound statements by pointing out that there's still a little bit of bullshit in them, too.
As no engineer ever said, "The house built from enlightenment has insufficient amps coming into the breaker panel."
The philosopher makes a profound statement that less sophisticated thinkers can understand. The engineer just builds a hydraulic cutter that is remarkable in its system to keep the silicon carbide grit slurry from clotting in the supply lines, and asks which river rock you want sliced up.
Intentionally missing the point is a form of trolling. And it's super fun when it's deflating the pomposity out of someone.
- staticautomatic 8y agoI don't think it's fair to criticize metaphor as bullshit insofar as the definition of bullshit is something like "saying things without regard for their truth values" (paraphrasing Harry Frankfurt) because metaphor doesn't have the sort of truth requirement you seem to think it does.
- bena 8y ago> It subtly undermines the supposedly profound statements by pointing out that there's still a little bit of bullshit in them, too This actually caught me and I found myself trying to game the test itself. For the first one, I was like "Yeah, it's true and is saying that persistence is important if you want to achieve your goals, but it's kind of a bullshitty way to say it" And then reading the rest, they all felt like they belonged on posters of silhouetted people looking over mighty vistas. So I declared the entire exercise a trick question. Also. Water saws are fucking scary.
- PhasmaFelis 8y agoI was nodding along until I realized that you're proposing "a bloody-minded willingness to argue over meaningless technical minutiae" is a good thing.
- logfromblammo 8y agoIt isn't good, but it's sometimes fun. That depends entirely on who you're doing it to. If you're not careful, it could end up being just mean.
- kthejoker2 8y agoWhich makes sense, as this is essentially a Rorschach test about prosocial behavior. Basically the test is immune to this kind of criticism, because it's only interested in your response to it. And lo and behold if you "troll" it by declaring it all bullshit, you're a type A engineer willing to argue over meaningless things, which certainly isn't very prosocial, whatever value it otherwise brings.