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The Crazy Lady Speaks

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Re: The Crazy Lady Speaks

#31

Post by kilian »

mkr-hn wrote: post #27
zephyrfalcon wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it has many unfortunate effects in society, the ability to make up your mind about something/someone in a split second is actually a survival mechanism.

It's very rare that I run in to a situation where the initial impression is accurate. How's such an inaccurate metric supposed to be a life saver?

it comes down to friend-or-foe, apparently. In one research I read about in the book "how we make mistakes", the split-second judgment upon seeing a photo of a political candidate for the first time was the best indicator of voting behaviour.

Re: The Crazy Lady Speaks

#32

Post by zephyrfalcon »

mkr-hn wrote: post #27
zephyrfalcon wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it has many unfortunate effects in society, the ability to make up your mind about something/someone in a split second is actually a survival mechanism.

It's very rare that I run in to a situation where the initial impression is accurate. How's such an inaccurate metric supposed to be a life saver?

In modern society it usually isn't, but it was a survival mechanism for early humans, and still is for animals. If you're an animal (or human) in the wild, and an unknown creature approaches you, you don't have time to think, "hm, I wonder if it's dangerous; let's not be prejudiced and wait until it gets here so I can see what it does." If you do that, and your guess was wrong, you're dead. On the other hand, if you chose to flee or hide, you'd be more likely to still be alive (and you can still choose to come out again once you've decided that the other is not a threat).

The same mechanism still exists in today's humans. Fortunately many of us are not in situations where our immediate survival is at stake. The mechanism is still there though, it just takes different forms, like having an opinion about people or things in a split second, based on what you perceive at that moment. (The reaction is likely to be different too, not fight-or-flight like in nature.) As you point out, it's often wrong, so it's much less useful to us than it used to be (although not completely useless).

Re: The Crazy Lady Speaks

#33

Post by gaius »

tome wrote: post #26
gaius wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK people are much of a muchness. Americans run a full-spectrum I suspect in the UK you've unconsciously constructed an echo chamber around yourself, it's easy to do, especially in London where you can easily fall into a demographic/subculture and never interact with anyone else. Whereas when traveling you are out of your "comfort zone" and interact with a greater range of people. People are people, and the UK has a…

Don't you think that most people from western countries would be shocked when an acquaintance casually mentions that he should have brought a gun in case he needs to shoot a criminal?

No, why would we? We're all familiar with American culture from TV. Outside of cities like Boston I'd be more surprised to meet an American who didn't own a gun!

Re: The Crazy Lady Speaks

#34

Post by hugh3 »

tome wrote: post #26
gaius wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK people are much of a muchness. Americans run a full-spectrum I suspect in the UK you've unconsciously constructed an echo chamber around yourself, it's easy to do, especially in London where you can easily fall into a demographic/subculture and never interact with anyone else. Whereas when traveling you are out of your "comfort zone" and interact with a greater range of people. People are people, and the UK has a…

Don't you think that most people from western countries would be shocked when an acquaintance casually mentions that he should have brought a gun in case he needs to shoot a criminal?

Only because it's illegal to do so in most western countries.

But to be shocked by that in America seems to show a rather high degree of cultural illiteracy.

Re: The Crazy Lady Speaks

#35

Post by hugh3 »

pmichaud wrote: post #25
mgw wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly there's also the opposite side. I always try to talk to homeless people begging in the street, getting their attention by giving them a small amount of money. A few weeks ago I came to talk to this girl coming from a different country who was just visiting friends in mine. I was looking for that special spark you found in your acquaintance but I simply couldn't find it. After about 20 minutes I had to admit tha…

You saw what she chose to show you.

Ockham's Razor: is the stupid homeless woman (a) stupid or (b) an evil genius who is pretending to be stupid for some unknown reason?

Re: The Crazy Lady Speaks

#36

Post by hugh3 »

filosofo wrote: post #2

What's crazy is thinking that someone necessarily agrees with the contents of a book she's reading.

Personally if I were reading a crazy conspiracy-theory book for some other purpose (research for a book I was writing about how crazy other people are, frinstance) I'd avoid reading it in public.

Re: The Crazy Lady Speaks

#37

Post by protomyth »

Lewisham wrote: post #15

You can have the same experience when it goes the other way: someone who is a good friend ends up with a startling revelation that makes your jaw drop. My case in point was this week: I was hanging out with an academic friend of mine at a conference. He lives somewhat far away, and when I do roll through town, we usually just grab a beer rather than see his house. This week, however, he revealed something that hither…

> the difficulty/trick, I guess, is to reconcile the person you have with the person you are now presented with, and realize that they are really one and the same, just with one minor change that makes no difference to your interactions.

No, the real trick is to use this new experience to reexamine your beliefs and assumptions to see if they need updating.

Re: The Crazy Lady Speaks

#38

Post by etruong42 »

corin_ wrote: post #13
jonhendry wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah. You said you talked about your lives, and described his. It seemed as though that was what you talked about on the plane.

I should have been more specific in the first place :)

To find conversations like these on the internet makes me happy.

Re: The Crazy Lady Speaks

#39

Post by lsc »

eh, another thing to remember is that the books you read don't define you. I've got a little red book on my bookshelf "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung" 1969 printing. and, uh, I'm not sure I'd call myself a Libertarian, but I'm probably closer to being a Libertarian than I am to being a democrat or a republican. I've also got some Skinner on my bookshelf. I'm an athiest, but I find Jack Chick to be fascinating. I mean, I think he's completely batshit insane, but he's definitely not a boring read.

Re: The Crazy Lady Speaks

#40

Post by pmichaud »

hugh3 wrote: post #35
pmichaud wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You saw what she chose to show you.

Ockham's Razor: is the stupid homeless woman (a) stupid or (b) an evil genius who is pretending to be stupid for some unknown reason?

No, she's not an evil genius, but let me spin you a yarn.

She's a homeless woman, so she was perhaps raised by a demanding and misogynistic father figure, from whom she learned to act helpless. Then she figured out in high school that acting dumb makes boys like her. She sort of fell into the identity because it was easy -- her family, friends, and society at large fully expected her to be a dumb slut, so it was easy, even for her, to believe she was, plus she liked the attention.

That's a pretty common thread, and people are WAY more complicated than that. I've found people have rich and varied experiences, even dumb ones. That you couldn't glean anything from this girl other than that she was "stupid" maybe says more about you than about her. She has thoughts and feelings that maybe she either can't express in a way you understand, or that she doesn't care to express to someone who is clearly an outsider.

I'm just saying that people surprise me, and I have a hard time believing some girl is just irredeemably "stupid" and that's all there is to know about her.

There are plenty of people who think I'm whatever they think

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