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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2830 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 20, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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The economy is a giant to-do list, and we all contribute tasks to it (I might add "Put bread on the shelf at the grocery store for me" to the list, and the grocery store manager is simply anticipating this from me and others like me). We're also helping cross things off of it. More jobs means more people are crossing tasks off the list, and the helpers benefit as a function of how important the task is (roughly). Technology helps us cross off more things faster.

I love this metaphor.

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Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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