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Part of human behavior is rounding things off to the nearest whole value. Something is either good or bad. Either wrong or right. While recognizing the utility

Part of human behavior is rounding things off to the nearest whole value. Something is either good or bad. Either wrong or right. While recognizing the utility of that approach and conceding it's often a good strategy, rationalists look for ways where resisting that very human tendency can help us out. I think this is most true when talking about an issue of policy that will affect millions/billions of people, like whether crypto should be encouraged or discouraged. That's the origin of the extra phraseology you're noticing in my opinion: to distinguish between supporting something, kind of supporting it, being bullish on it, being certain of it, being skeptical, being mildly skeptical, etc. To my ear, saying "I'm still bullish" rather than "I'm less than infinitely certain about X" is the weird sounding one, like someone's trying really hard to signal to me they know and care about stocks and investments and stuff. To be honest I don't and still get confused on which is which between "bearish" and "bullish".

xg15 4y ago
Makes sort of sense, but "less than infinitely" doesn't really mean anything. You could be extremely opposed to crypto for all practical purposes and still be "less than infinitely" hostile. The other phrases are also vague enough that they are not really helpful. If you're "mildly opinionated" enough about something to write a blog post about it, I'm starting to how much degree is actually meant with "mild". If to people are mildly opinionated about somthing, who does have the stronger opinion? I agree that things are often complex and not clear-cut, but I don't see how trying to mush everything into featureless grey would help here to gain insight.
- eric-hu 4y ago
  It's cool that the author is in this thread commenting too. I read the article before reading his comments in here, and "infinitely hostile" resonated with me on a personal level. I've been berated by certain friends for entertaining opinions different from theirs. It's hostility that felt unworkable to me, I don't feel like I can actually engage these individuals in conversation about topics such as cryptocurrency. I entered these conversations with some platonic notion of friendly debate where we'd share our perspectives, maybe point out where we disagree with each other, then walk away with better understanding of each others views. Instead, I felt like I got yelled at and interrupted before finishing 2 sentences, and overall I just want to avoid such an interaction again. "Less than infinitely" to me made sense too, it's what I would've liked out of my friend on the topic of crypto or really anything where we don't see eye to eye. I don't want an "omg you're right what have I been thinking", but maybe "I don't know about your conclusions, but I'll consider what you said and maybe they'll change my mind or maybe they'll help me better form my own arguments."
p0pcult 4y ago
The way I remember bullish vs bearish is that bull statue on wall street[1]. They didnt make a statue to a bad market. [1] https://wallpapercave.com/wall-street-bull-wallpapers https://wallpapercave.com/wall-street-bull-wallpapers

xg15 4y ago

Makes sort of sense, but "less than infinitely" doesn't really mean anything. You could be extremely opposed to crypto for all practical purposes and still be "less than infinitely" hostile. The other phrases are also vague enough that they are not really helpful. If you're "mildly opinionated" enough about something to write a blog post about it, I'm starting to how much degree is actually meant with "mild". If to people are mildly opinionated about somthing, who does have the stronger opinion? I agree that things are often complex and not clear-cut, but I don't see how trying to mush everything into featureless grey would help here to gain insight.

eric-hu 4y ago
It's cool that the author is in this thread commenting too. I read the article before reading his comments in here, and "infinitely hostile" resonated with me on a personal level. I've been berated by certain friends for entertaining opinions different from theirs. It's hostility that felt unworkable to me, I don't feel like I can actually engage these individuals in conversation about topics such as cryptocurrency. I entered these conversations with some platonic notion of friendly debate where we'd share our perspectives, maybe point out where we disagree with each other, then walk away with better understanding of each others views. Instead, I felt like I got yelled at and interrupted before finishing 2 sentences, and overall I just want to avoid such an interaction again. "Less than infinitely" to me made sense too, it's what I would've liked out of my friend on the topic of crypto or really anything where we don't see eye to eye. I don't want an "omg you're right what have I been thinking", but maybe "I don't know about your conclusions, but I'll consider what you said and maybe they'll change my mind or maybe they'll help me better form my own arguments."

p0pcult 4y ago

The way I remember bullish vs bearish is that bull statue on wall street[1]. They didnt make a statue to a bad market. [1] https://wallpapercave.com/wall-street-bull-wallpapers https://wallpapercave.com/wall-street-bull-wallpapers