March 12, 2012
-
http://xkcd.com/1027/
Pick-Up Artistry is pretty silly, and Less Wrong's anti-procrastination techniques are not as effective as they think.
There, I said it. I've wanted to say each of those things for quite awhiles.
In order then. I've only barely visited Pick-Up Artistry (PUA) forums, and they looked harmless enough, so this is in response to something a friend said: that women were attracted to men who overruled them in disagreements because they demonstrated dominance, or something to that effect.
Perhaps what I mean to say is, I think PUA is pretty silly. Not being taken seriously is one of a handful of things that makes me angry for real! And then I end up spending the next few months trying really hard not to resent the person. I still resent Michael Vassar, even though his judgment might have been reasonable based on the information he had. Maybe that's not how it works for everyone, but it certainly seems pretty silly to me. And, no matter where someone ranks, they're still wrong if they try to tell me I'm attracted to something I'm not.
I should be more charitable towards Less Wrong. Much of its posts are actually good, or at least interesting and meaningful. However! I've since come to believe that being effective is an ongoing battle that never ceases. To be effective, you have to make the right decision over and over again, and if you make the wrong decision, it becomes easier to do so again. There are tactics, covered on Less Wrong, that make it easier to make the effective choice, and when one makes the wrong choice, I feel like the appropriate response is to dust oneself off, make a renewed commitment, and try again. One doesn't abandon a course the first time one misses a lecture.
But sometimes, one comes across incredibly specific posts like this one, and I must say I'm a bit skeptical. Certainly everything sounds plausible. But if it were tried on many many people, would it actually show results?
. . . Upon reflection, I find that I have little to quibble about in that specific article, except the big, unsupported equation presented in LaTeX. I feel like I've become old and cynical of things presented as the great big fix-all to procrastination. I don't know if I believe in a great big fix-all. Just an urge to play one more game of Set that must be fought down over and over again.
Comments (1)
Vassar is a continued mystery to me. He is often blatantly wrong, but his perspective can reframe the issue in a useful way. Interpreting him charitably, his claim was we are bad judges of what we are attracted to (a special case of introspection doing poorly in general) and you are probably more attracted to that than you realize. Whether he actually meant that is an entirely different question. I put substantial weight on the possibility that he is crazy rather than a cryptic genius, and of course if you look hard enough you can sift something of value out.
Comments are closed.