Marcus G. Daniels wrote at 09/25/2013 01:24 PM:
I suspect a choice in practice is often between the people that like theories and the people that don't. Making theories is labor intensive so the folks that like theories tend get together and debate 'em, write papers, build tools, etc. The others press +1 on Facebook and act instinctively or imitate some alpha dog. [...] Worriers are people that are modeling and in some sense making up rules -- playing out scenarios, thinking of contingencies, etc. "Rules" can be a shorthand for thought, rather than just carrying the connotation of influence and regulation from the outside.
I largely agree. But my skeptical homunculus is dancing around with ants in its pants. Theorizers and worriers do construct rules. And the serious ones convict themselves to those rules. Most of the ones that happen (by randomness, I assert) to turn out validated become even more permanent convicts ... spending their entire lives chained to some imaginary correlation between their own brain farts and reality. Some of the ones that happen (also by accident) to turn out falsified end up believing there's a conspiracy against them, that they are right despite a preponderance of evidence against their pet idea. Of course, there are rational subsets of both, the ones who farted the right idea realize the role of luck in the process and the ones who got it wrong revise their world view and move on to the next challenge. But it's my assertion that this latter group shares a large intersection with the opportunist "plussers". And I would further assert (again without justification or testing criteria - because that's how I roll) that this is normal animal behavior. The fittest amongst us don't spend much time constructing rules. And even if we do, we're ready to abandon those rules for new ones at the drop of a hat. And this is what makes animals different from their artifacts. It also speaks to the deeper meaning of the word "open"... as in extensible (up, down, in, and out). -- ⇒⇐ glen e. p. ropella I'm writing history with the back of my hand
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