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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   6181 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 12, 2023

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Has anyone else noticed a shift towards 'I feel' and against 'I think'? This is in writing but especially in speech, unprepared dialogue.

It's been irking me for months now. 'I feel like' sounds weaker than 'I think that'. It's like a defensive measure, a way to avoid being shown up. You can have a wrong or incorrect thought but it's much harder to have a wrong feeling. There's also a lack of rigor to feelings, it's as though they're reading into vibes (another similar idea). Thoughts should at least be connected to logic and some kind of fact, there'd be some kind of basis for them. Feelings need no basis.

I recall that there used to be more confidence and surety. People would say 'I think' or just make a plain factual statement. Or even a plain normative statement like 'X should do Y to Z'.

I did a quick ctrl F and found there to be 35 'I thinks' and 1 'I feel' in this thread, which perhaps disproves my paranoia. But then again this is an unusual place.

I think that you're technically correct about the "weakness," maintaining distance from the belief, but I feel like it doesn't really matter. The confounding factor is that "I feel" signals greater openness to being convinced for the same face-saving reasons it's weaker. That makes it useful, and it also makes it harder to psychoanalyze. You'd see more "I feel" from a vibes-based world, but you'd also expect it from a greater level of humility.

The sense that it's increased...no, I haven't seen that. My reflex is to say that confirmation bias, etc. are more likely than an actual systematic change. I'm generally skeptical of word-frequency studies, so take this with a whole shaker of salt, but Google Trends says that "feel" has gone up more than "think." There's no obvious inflection point, and I don't actually know what Google is measuring here, but it supports your observation. Also, apparently "think" is way more coupled to the summer-break effects. I wonder why?

Now, I do get my hackles raised when this community, specifically, uses "it seems." That's a red flag suggesting whatever comes next is going to be pulled directly from the author's ass. Not always, and the toxoplasma of rage suggests that I'm going to notice the worst examples, but...argh. It really gets to me sometimes.

I find myself going back and forth, precisely along the lines of what you've described. I do mathematically-heavy research, and intuition really is a thing. When something just feels like it should be right. You don't actually think it yet, but you're like, "If there is any beauty in mathematics, this should be right somehow, or at the very least, thinking about it should lead me to something relatively profound." It's purely a feeling, looking through a very hazy glass, extremely darkly. Once you can start to erect at least a shell of how you're going to get to a result, you can move toward, "I think."

I think there is at least one very good reason to write "I feel" or other mellowing qualifiers before a statement that have nothing to do with being afraid of criticism, namely to get people to engage with your overall point rather than quibbling about details.

Its the same reason I say stuff like "that's a good point" even when I think someone said something completely wrong and retarded. Telling them the truth doesn't lead to functional conversation outside a small subset of people on the spectrum (no it's not people here).

People are willing to let minor errors pass or let go of erroneous ideas if you let them do so. Boldly state everything all the time you'll get nowhere.

There's no functional difference between the two. People use "I feel" and "I think" as a preemptive defense against hostile readers attacking propositions stated without that label. Unfortunately, this makes writing less forceful and less enjoyable for everyone.

Let me include an earlier version of this comment:

I don't see any functional difference between the two. I think both are a form of preemptive defense against a hostile reader refusing to address your points by instead attacking your certainty in something you're only proposing for discussion.

While I didn't use "I feel" there, it's still weak writing.

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/12/the-rise-and-decline-of-thinking-over-feeling.html

I have noticed the specific thing you mentioned too.

I've always been an "I feel"er and people have often criticized me for that. Rightly, I think. I think I just have a lot of under-tested ideas. Part of it may also be poor writing; I'm not sure if writing is getting worse in a general way.

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