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I tried to write a response to you this morning and bailed on it because this conversation has been exhausting. You’re taking important/big to you and projecti

I tried to write a response to you this morning and bailed on it because this conversation has been exhausting. You’re taking important/big to you and projecting it on me. You’re insisting that the things about my identity that I consider big are small. I could almost understand if you don’t fully appreciate the impact of discovering one’s sexuality and gender feels like. But you’ve included autism as small, and that suggests either you’re really ignorant of what that entails or, like so many other “big” things you listed you just don’t see how they intersect? Either way it feels dismissive as hell. What’s small to you isn’t to me. If that doesn’t speak to identity than what does?

Retric 5y ago
It’s literally small in the information compression sense. Storing the pattern of your palm print takes up more space than a listing most peoples current bank account balances. People generally care a lot more about bank accounts than palm prints, but that doesn’t mean they take up a lot of space. As such palm prints are literally a larger part of your identity than your bank account balance.
- eyelidlessness 5y ago
  > It’s literally small in the information compression sense. How so? Your example doesn’t make this clear as I can’t relate those things to the actual parts of my identity you’re addressing. Tell me more detail about how small my queerness, NBness and neurodivergence are.
  - Retric 5y ago
    You just described your queerness in 1 word, so that’s ~20 bits of information. Having also summed up the other 2 conditions in a single world call it’s at most ~60 bits of information to describe all 3. Except not every word fits into sexual identity. If you where listing every person on earth let’s be generous and call it 10,000 options for sexual identity or ~15 bits of information.
    - eyelidlessness 5y ago
      Quoting myself in my first comment on this thread: > I spent most of my life shielding myself from admitting I’m queer, and nearly all of it shielding myself from admitting I’m non-binary and admitting I’m autistic, using this logic. You really think there isn’t more to shape me, to who I am and what shaped and continues to me, than what I described here? You really think the kinds of pain I described in responses from the process that led to these recognitions about myself are low information? You’re talking to me like my life and my self is distilled down to the words I’ve written in a HN comment thread. Honestly this isn’t worth my time. Go dismiss yourself.

Retric 5y ago

It’s literally small in the information compression sense. Storing the pattern of your palm print takes up more space than a listing most peoples current bank account balances. People generally care a lot more about bank accounts than palm prints, but that doesn’t mean they take up a lot of space. As such palm prints are literally a larger part of your identity than your bank account balance.

eyelidlessness 5y ago
> It’s literally small in the information compression sense. How so? Your example doesn’t make this clear as I can’t relate those things to the actual parts of my identity you’re addressing. Tell me more detail about how small my queerness, NBness and neurodivergence are.
- Retric 5y ago
  You just described your queerness in 1 word, so that’s ~20 bits of information. Having also summed up the other 2 conditions in a single world call it’s at most ~60 bits of information to describe all 3. Except not every word fits into sexual identity. If you where listing every person on earth let’s be generous and call it 10,000 options for sexual identity or ~15 bits of information.
  - eyelidlessness 5y ago
    Quoting myself in my first comment on this thread: > I spent most of my life shielding myself from admitting I’m queer, and nearly all of it shielding myself from admitting I’m non-binary and admitting I’m autistic, using this logic. You really think there isn’t more to shape me, to who I am and what shaped and continues to me, than what I described here? You really think the kinds of pain I described in responses from the process that led to these recognitions about myself are low information? You’re talking to me like my life and my self is distilled down to the words I’ve written in a HN comment thread. Honestly this isn’t worth my time. Go dismiss yourself.