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PaperclipPerfector  17d ago (text post)   1243 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for April 9, 2025

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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And under that framework, you shouldn't expose a weakness in your worldview any more than your defense attorney should make an argument for the prosecution.

I don’t think this is right. If anything I would say it’s important to expose your weaknesses. Partly as a show of good faith, and partly to find out (or show you know) where they are.

Part of the point of chatting in the Motte is so strangers can tell you, “I get that you believe A -> B -> C” but you can’t actually back up the first half of that”. Doesn’t mean you have to stop believing it, but you should be aware going forward that it’s an axiom not a strong inference or fact.

To put it another way, I think arguing on the motte is meant to be like sparring rather than like battle, and sparring won’t help you improve if you fight in a defensive manner, never over-extend, and refuse to be open.

EDIT: you were talking about the internet not the Motte. There’s one of my vulnerabilities for you - I’m a natural speed reader and I sometimes miss detail. The point is still valid I think but yes, don’t throw pearls before swine.

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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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