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curi: You should write a split personality post.
Elliot: No, that'd scare the readers.
curi: So?
Elliot: I like having readers.
curi: Maybe they like to be scared. Like a roller-coaster.
Isyn: Do you think I should sabatoge a roller-coaster, so the fear would be justified?
Everyone: NOOOOO!
Isyn: hmpf
Elliot: Go away guys, I need to write something serious. My blog is going to have real content.
curi: yeah, every 5th post.
Elliot: *jumps at curi*
curi: feh, you're a freaking human, you think you can catch me?
curi: *blinks out*
Ellliot: *crashes into the floor where curi had been sitting*
curi: *blinks in, relaxing on a sofa*
Elliot: grrrr
curi: Hahaha, now you look like a fool.
Elliot: I do not. It's no fair that you have magic powers! *whines*
curi: *giggles*
Isyn (soothing, enticing voice): Ya'know, Elliot, we could do something about that.
Elliot (angrily): NO DARK PACTS!!
Isyn: sheesh, I was just trying to help.
Lia (sweet voice): Isyn, there are other ways to help.
Isyn: But it's so much harder to do things the good way.
Lia: Righteousness is its own reward.
Isyn: *grumble, grumble*
curi: *still laughing*
Elliot: Shut up, curi, and you're coming off a total goof anyway
curi: As if I care.
Elliot: I know you like attention.
curi: yeah
Elliot: And I did name my blog for you.
curi: yeah
Elliot: So the more readers, the more attention you get
curi: hmmm, that's a good point
Elliot: hah!
curi: But wait! How do you know the readers want a serious blog?
Elliot: Content has value.
curi: So does fun.
Elliot: Are you contradicting me?
curi: Yes.
Elliot: I'd kick your ass, but, ummm, I can't.
curi: heheh
Elliot: *throws a fish at curi*
curi: *snaps fingers*
fish: *turns into sushi plate*
curi: *catches plate and starts eating*
Elliot: ohhhh! sushi! gimme some!
curi: What's the magic word?
Elliot: Bitch!
curi: bzzt
Elliot: Please please please!
curi: Well...
Elliot (slowly, despairingly): suuushiii....
curi: ok ok, you can have some.
curi: *snaps fingers*
giant plate full of sushi: *appears*
Elliot: mmmmmm *starts stuffing face*
Isyn: Why'd you make the sushi for him?
curi: He wanted it.
Isyn: So?
curi: It wasn't very hard...
Isyn: But why did you help him?
curi: *poses for the camera* I'm a good person.
Bribe Money: appears in reporter's pocket, with note to publicise this
Isyn: But why does helping others make you good? What use is being good?
curi: d00d, are you amoral or something?
Isyn: Oh, that's helpful...
Elliot: *still eating sushi*
Lia: *gives curi a look telling him to be serious*
curi: Morality is part of our explanatory framework.
Isyn: How do you know what it says?
curi: Start with some conjectures, criticise them, end up with tentative knowledge. Like other spheres.
Isyn: Well, why should helping be right? Why not hurting?
curi: Will you agree that views in beteween are inconsistent?
Isyn: Yes.
curi: So, you can choose between the pure-good .... I mean purely-helpful morality, or the purely hurtful one. I trust you'll do the right thing.
Isyn: Why should I?
curi: erm, well
Lia: Isyn, do you want to hurt me?
Isyn: err, no.
Lia: Well, then, it seems you've chosen. :-)
curi: Hey, that was brilliant, Lia.
Lia: It wouldn't have worked for you, anyway.
curi: pfft
Elliot: *finishes all the sushi*
Elliot: Hey, that was good. Thank you!
curi: See, he's happy. How cool is that?
Isyn: feh
Elliot: feh...that reminds me....I think I'm gonna watch Inu Yasha now.
curi: I thought you were writing a post.
Elliot: Some other time.
curi: Err, well, I may have saved you some trouble.
Elliot: What do you mean?
curi: See that camera?
Elliot: Yes
curi: Look closer
Camera View: Elliot lunges, reaches out, and things go black

Elliot Temple on February 3, 2003

Messages (7)

Lol

That was fun

Do you think writing stuff like this is bad now?

Or do you get as much fun from writing serious philosophy now as you seemed to get from when you wrote stuff like this?

Or have you decided just not to do stuff like this here and do it elsewhere?

Or something else?

It was weird to read something like this by you.

I think I misinterpret you being critical and blunt (and sometimes pretty harsh) as you being unhappy/upset/annoyed.

So something like this is weird, contradictory of my interpretation. Tho it's also very old so might be obsolete.

(I guess I should just ask "u mad?" when I interpret you as being annoyed rather than ignoring it tho, it took me a while before I saw enough to appreciate that you're actually very nice and worth caring about)


Anonymous at 5:59 AM on January 3, 2017 | #8145 | reply | quote

> I think I misinterpret you being critical and blunt (and sometimes pretty harsh) as you being unhappy/upset/annoyed.

Can you quote some of the things he said that you thought was harsh?


FF at 8:35 AM on January 3, 2017 | #8146 | reply | quote

Quote? No. I'd have to go through a ton of emails and stuff to find them (and the details are not fresh in my mind anyway, so it would take even longer), doesn't seem like a good use of my time.

Do you disagree that curi is sometimes harsh? Or do you have another reason to ask?


Anonymous at 8:46 AM on January 3, 2017 | #8147 | reply | quote

Harsh = clear


Anonymous at 10:24 AM on January 3, 2017 | #8148 | reply | quote

Not inherently. Nothing about being harsh makes something more or less clear. You can be unclear while being harsh too.

I think harsh is a side-trait to a statement. It's irrelevant to whether a statement is true or false.

In general I think it's better to avoid being harsh if you know a way. But if the only way you know of being honest is harsh, that's still better than being dishonest or evading an issue.


Anonymous at 11:48 AM on January 3, 2017 | #8151 | reply | quote

you'll like this post:

http://curi.us/658-split-post

i'm willing to grant that i'm sometimes "critical" and "blunt" and "sometimes pretty harsh" without any quotes. i find those comments fair.

i don't demand quotes for everything just to hassle people or try to win arguments. i ask for quotes when i think it will make a difference (e.g. some detail from the quote will be relevant). i wonder if FF is cargo culting me. alternatively FF might have some conception that my comments are only harsh-according-to-our-culture but not objectively-harsh (in which case it would have been better to just say that.)

being harsh is sometimes part of being clear in a culture which considers many truths to be harsh. so if you clearly say a relevant truth, that's "harsh". so you can retreat from saying the right content at all, or make it unclear, or be deemed harsh.

> Do you think writing stuff like this is bad now?

no. but personally my interests have progressed.

> It was weird to read something like this by you.

NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ME. ahem.

i still make joking comments but usually not in public b/c jokes harm clarity a lot and my jokes usually relate to some substantive issue and have a dual purpose.

> (I guess I should just ask "u mad?" when I interpret you as being annoyed rather than ignoring it tho, it took me a while before I saw enough to appreciate that you're actually very nice and worth caring about)

i'm not mad. i'm very calm. check out my youtube videos where i write emails. let me know if you find a single time you think i'm mad in all those hours. even in the one where i get banned from HBL live on video i'm immediately calm and rational about it. immediately like "the entire time" not "after only 5 seconds". note the videos are mostly raw, i never edited out an emotional reaction or took a break to calm down or anything like that.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKx6lO5RmaesaCfm2dXGUfbycDYEXJoU9

i was an especially calm person in 2003 as well.

yes feel free to ask in particular instances if you're in doubt. even tho DD would tell you not to because that's meta discussion ☹️


curi at 12:30 PM on January 3, 2017 | #8154 | reply | quote

>> It was weird to read something like this by you.

> NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ME. ahem.

Heh.

I think I'd like to.

> i'm not mad. i'm very calm. check out my youtube videos where i write emails. let me know if you find a single time you think i'm mad in all those hours. even in the one where i get banned from HBL live on video i'm immediately calm and rational about it. immediately like "the entire time" not "after only 5 seconds". note the videos are mostly raw, i never edited out an emotional reaction or took a break to calm down or anything like that.

Ok this is helpful. I think my problems with misinterpreting tone is more of an obstacle at the moment than the problems I have with reading/writing skill.

I'm gonna start watching your videos.


SN at 7:45 PM on January 4, 2017 | #8165 | reply | quote

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