4 ms·

> What is also very likely is that few if any of those made a decision not to uphold their end of the bargain. I disagree. Although I agree that it is unlikely

by B-Con 14y ago

> What is also very likely is that few if any of those made a decision not to uphold their end of the bargain. I disagree. Although I agree that it is unlikely that it was their intent from the outset, there is a threshhold at which point someone has practically decided not to do something. Once they have procrastinated on doing something for X months and know that it is only #73 on their internal priority list, they have essentially decided not to do it. It could happen, but the odds are, what, maybe 10%? If you assume that a commitment to do something is giving a 100% guarantee and a commitment to not do something is a 0% guarantee, a 10% chance is, pragmatically, a "no". Also, part of the implied deal was that you write the review promptly. From the original blog post where Schneier made the book offer: > Liars and Outliers has been out since late February, and while it's selling great, I'd like it to sell better. So I have a special offer for my regular readers. I don't think he was hoping they would send in their reviews a year or two later. Those who do would have a hard time arguing that they met the spirit of the deal. The initial blog post was almost exactly 5 months ago and the offer was closed in two days, which means that a lot of readers probably got their books at least 4 months ago. (In my experience he does ship promptly, as I have gotten a book from him before.) If he was hoping that they would write their review in a reasonable amount of time, say 8 months, and only 9% wrote a review in the first half, I highly, highly doubt that even 41% will write a review in the second half. And the majority of those who will not probably subconsciously know it by now. Edit: To be specific, I don't think he expected 90% turnout by this date, he's just disappointed that the turnout is so low by now. It's not even 1 in 10. 4 months is a decent amount of time to review a book you agreed to review.

AnthonyMouse 14y ago
>Once they have procrastinated on doing something for X months and know that it is only #73 on their internal priority list, they have essentially decided not to do it. I think the point is that a decision is an affirmative act. Nobody decides to forget to do something. It's like the difference between incompetence and malice.
- MBCook 14y ago
  > I think the point is that a decision is an affirmative act. Nobody decides to forget to do something. But didn't they choose not to ensure they remembered? That sentence sounds ridiculous. But if I care about something I'll ensure that I get reminded somehow so I can't forget. The experimental subjects that didn't provide a review either explicitly chose not to, or acted in a way that made it possible for them to forget.
  - mistercow 14y ago
    I don't think that's in the spirit of the concepts of "deciding" and "choosing". When they made the commitment, they believed they would remember to do it. They may have made an error of judgment in not taking more precautions to ensure that they remembered, but that is not the same as choosing not to do it.

by B-Con 14y ago

AnthonyMouse 14y ago

>Once they have procrastinated on doing something for X months and know that it is only #73 on their internal priority list, they have essentially decided not to do it. I think the point is that a decision is an affirmative act. Nobody decides to forget to do something. It's like the difference between incompetence and malice.

MBCook 14y ago
> I think the point is that a decision is an affirmative act. Nobody decides to forget to do something. But didn't they choose not to ensure they remembered? That sentence sounds ridiculous. But if I care about something I'll ensure that I get reminded somehow so I can't forget. The experimental subjects that didn't provide a review either explicitly chose not to, or acted in a way that made it possible for them to forget.
- mistercow 14y ago
  I don't think that's in the spirit of the concepts of "deciding" and "choosing". When they made the commitment, they believed they would remember to do it. They may have made an error of judgment in not taking more precautions to ensure that they remembered, but that is not the same as choosing not to do it.