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What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.

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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If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!

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PaperclipPerfector 4d ago (text post) 1949 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 2, 2026

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.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

roystgnr 15hr ago

I mostly use LLMs (including Gemini!) for math and software. I think by far the biggest third category of use cases for me is "better search engine":

Finding any existing name(s) for a concept I describe.
Finding old quotes, jokes, short stories, TV episodes, or historical events, when I only remember a description but not searchable exact words.
Finding TTRPG rules and DMing suggestions for tricky situations.
Locating data for particular statistics
Getting quick but detailed summaries when I'm curious about music/history/physics/sociology questions
Checking food safety rules, stain removal tips, musical instrument storage requirements, and injury care and pet care guidelines
Finding online course options for my kids
Planning trips
- Locating that one canyon my parents took me to 40 years ago, based on a vague description, so I could take my kids
- Finding fun "little" places to stop on the between-major-attraction legs of road trips that might otherwise be slogs
- Finding hiking trails that match my kids' preferences, or in general searching destination options for amenities that you can't find hard-coded filters for
- Learning "gotchas" about travel destinations ahead of time
- Coming up with packing/prep checklists
Finding IRS rules based on a vague description of a situation
Quickly finding information on a list of professors based on a page with just photos

Including "much better reverse-image-search":

Identifying a foster kitten's skin problem by photo, and another cat's stomach troubles by description.
Identifying some "volunteer" garden plants by photo, and some animals by photo of their droppings.
Identifying garden pests by photo and figuring out how to safely get rid of them
Identifying strange things we saw on vacation, from photos

And some miscellaneous:

Figuring out how to better use my garden peppers
As a better thesaurus, refining synonym/antonym lists by ruling out or requiring particular connotations
Generative tasks
- Making funny pictures and videos with my kids
- Coming up with more interesting quiz problem ideas and game ideas for the math team I was coaching
- Distilling long news pages into short summaries of the most important bits
For "handyman" problems
- Figuring out how to work around problems with a hydroponics pump wearing out, then how to replace it with a more efficient setup when it finally broke
- Figuring out to fix a broken tub/shower diverter valve
- Figuring out how to fix a broken smartwatch
- Troubleshooting a failing car ignition
- Translating photos of foreign-language signs/instructions/machines, and figuring out how to use some of those machines

YMMV, of course, but there are skill issues for everyone here. One ironic skill issue of my own that only occurs to me belatedly: I probably spent 5 minutes skimming logs and typing up this list by hand, but if I instead give Gemini a 3-sentence prompt and do something else for 15 seconds, I get a list that's arguably a little better despite being more abbreviated.

Context

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.

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.

New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!

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