Trying to be rational about my irrationality

[drosenfeld55]

I heard Scott Adams sounding like he was making a rational argument that no one is rational which, if true, means he wasn't rational, but I don't know what conclusion to draw from it because I'm not rational either. Plus, my brain hurts.

[shirgall]

I heard Scott Adams sounding like he was making a rational argument that no one is rational which, if true, means he wasn't rational, but I don't know what conclusion to draw from it because I'm not rational either. Plus, my brain hurts.

 

His argument was "If it makes you miserable, perhaps it's not worth it, even if it's right."

[Sima]

I kinda understood : it's irrational to talk rationally with irrational people . But I am not sure.In his blog he says, irrational people are about 99% of population.

[shirgall]

I kinda understood : it's irrational to talk rationally with irrational people . But I am not sure.In his blog he says, irrational people are about 99% of population.

 

Indeed, I have a hard enough time getting people to recognize that piling on adjectives is name-calling and not argument. Then I get can finally get started on teaching that claims asserted without evidence also don't require evidence to dismiss.

[RichardY]

It is also Irrational to talk rationally with rational people. Seemed like a very good video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsH17taSBzo was expecting it to be all about Trump from the beginning, but was surprised when Stefan and Scott started talking about a systems vs goal approach to life, Irrationality and Capitalism. Just listened to the first 20 minutes, but will definitely listen to the rest.

[drosenfeld55]

I remember Adams saying that you shouldn't get upset if someone refuses to accept your rational argument because you're not rational, ether. Perhaps he meant you're not always rational; I'd have to listen to it again. He did say other interesting things as mentioned above, including that he had ended the death threats against himself by endorsing Clinton, even though he was honest about his reason for doing it. He also had an amusing story about how he dealt with someone who reflexively said "no" to everything by using something like a technique I used to see in cartoons. Two characters would be going back and forth, one asserting one thing and the other contradicting it, when the protagonist, probably Bugs Bunny, would suddenly repeat his opponent's response. His opponent would then counter with Bugs' original assertion and act on it. In Adams' example, he would preemptively make the other person's case for him, causing him to want to prove Adams wrong.

[Brainwright]

It should be remembered that every rational argument is built from irrational atoms called facts.

 

Don't let your prior rational arguments stand in the way of accepting facts, especially when your rational arguments force you to ignore the facts stating you're miserable.