4 ms·

Sure, everything sounds worse if you read it in a cynical frame of mind.

cbsks 5y ago
And that’s the main issue with comments on the Internet :) Being cynical is much easier than being insightful.
tantalor 5y ago
It's about being a critical and alert reader, not cynical. That's how we protect ourselves from directly injecting nonsense into our brains. People don't do it enough. The difference between good and bad writing is that good writing can anticipate and withstand a critical reading. Bad writing just falls apart and the point is lost.
- danparsonson 5y ago
  Apologies if I'm misunderstanding your original post - I agree with everything you've just written in your reply to me - but to pick up an example from the original: >> I thought building a version of the game might be a good creative outlet. (a) >Meant: "I like building games and making a clone of this would be fun!" (b) >Sounds like: "I did not bother to check google, so I had to build one myself." (c) I don't know how you got from (a) to (c) if not through cynicism. How is that critical thinking? You appear to be painting a worst-case interpretation and adding your own detail to make it sounds worse. Let's try an alternative version of the same construction: "I think building a table might be a good creative outlet" Does that sound more like "I like building things and making my own table would be fun" or "I did not bother to check <local_furniture_store>, so I had to build one myself" To me it's very clearly the former; how can you know whether I did or did not investigate alternatives from that sentence? I could do the same with "None of my 'friends' told me I copied a well known game" - air quotes implies they're not really friends "I am unaware this game already existed in many forms" - that sentence is a contradiction in terms, but if you mean 'I was...' then the original specifically mentions the game by name - therefore obviously his/her version of it which clearly did not previously exist "this game has no name; nobody else in the whole world plays it" - how can anyone with any certainty ever assert that no-one else in the whole world does something? I'm confused, have I totally misread you? What am I missing?
  - tantalor 5y ago
    You're absolutely right, I was being cheeky, you are right to call me out. You have a good point: it's a risk of being overly critical that you fall into cynical ridicule.
    - danparsonson 5y ago
      Ah... understood, thanks; I just came from reading several posts by, let's call them 'vaccine cynics' so I guess I was primed by that mode of discussion.

And that’s the main issue with comments on the Internet :) Being cynical is much easier than being insightful.

It's about being a critical and alert reader, not cynical. That's how we protect ourselves from directly injecting nonsense into our brains. People don't do it enough. The difference between good and bad writing is that good writing can anticipate and withstand a critical reading. Bad writing just falls apart and the point is lost.

danparsonson 5y ago
Apologies if I'm misunderstanding your original post - I agree with everything you've just written in your reply to me - but to pick up an example from the original: >> I thought building a version of the game might be a good creative outlet. (a) >Meant: "I like building games and making a clone of this would be fun!" (b) >Sounds like: "I did not bother to check google, so I had to build one myself." (c) I don't know how you got from (a) to (c) if not through cynicism. How is that critical thinking? You appear to be painting a worst-case interpretation and adding your own detail to make it sounds worse. Let's try an alternative version of the same construction: "I think building a table might be a good creative outlet" Does that sound more like "I like building things and making my own table would be fun" or "I did not bother to check <local_furniture_store>, so I had to build one myself" To me it's very clearly the former; how can you know whether I did or did not investigate alternatives from that sentence? I could do the same with "None of my 'friends' told me I copied a well known game" - air quotes implies they're not really friends "I am unaware this game already existed in many forms" - that sentence is a contradiction in terms, but if you mean 'I was...' then the original specifically mentions the game by name - therefore obviously his/her version of it which clearly did not previously exist "this game has no name; nobody else in the whole world plays it" - how can anyone with any certainty ever assert that no-one else in the whole world does something? I'm confused, have I totally misread you? What am I missing?
- tantalor 5y ago
  You're absolutely right, I was being cheeky, you are right to call me out. You have a good point: it's a risk of being overly critical that you fall into cynical ridicule.
  - danparsonson 5y ago
    Ah... understood, thanks; I just came from reading several posts by, let's call them 'vaccine cynics' so I guess I was primed by that mode of discussion.