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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3574 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 9, 2023

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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I've been suffering from a weird kind of anxiety.

Everything I say, I find myself rephrasing 5 times to make sure it's factually correct. In that, all edge cases and interpretations are covered. And feel similar anxiety when others say things without much care. This has lately made it impossible for me to comment anything on the motte at all, or speaking rather difficult with most people except those who I can explain all the terms and conditions to, and have it understood by them.

I don't know if this is OCD or what.

For what it's worth, I find all your comments reasonable and often enough contain something I can grow from. Though I get the instinct to catastrophize about reception and struggle with it myself.

It's not a negative reception that deters me, it's failing some kind of commitment to the "truth".

OCD is a spectral disease, there's no clear cutoff, unlike say, either being schizo or not.

It's possible that you have a mild degree of OCD tendency, but if it's not the classical symptoms and moderately debilitating, we just don't call it that. I take it it's not there yet is it?

I am more fastidious with crafting my comments on the Motte because I know some people can't help themselves when it comes to nitpicking with an iron comb. Sure, they get all the nits, but my god does the argument seem bald afterwards haha

I’m surprised you feel that way on the Motte. The description of this place says,

for people who want to … test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases.

That means you can talk about things you’re not an expert at. This is a place to get feedback and learn new things. You don’t have to anticipate all the interpretations and edge cases initially. If someone finds an unaddressed edge case or interpretation it just leads to useful dialogue in the comments. Additionally, by participating in something you’re not an expert at it causes you to become better at it through practice.

Something intelligent people often say when they get those feelings during in-person conversations is, “Let me look into that and get back to you”.

How long has that been happening for? If it started recently, maybe it's stress / lack of sleep / something missing in your diet? That sometimes makes people act weird.

Sounds like my old friend social anxiety. We all have it to varying degrees.

What helps me is just pushing through and saying/posting stuff and resisting the urge to clarify or edit or whatever.

It's not social anxiety.

I don't feel this unease verbalizing the answer to "What did you have for lunch?"

Its more along "What do you think about process X"

And what I feel about process X is ..{condition_a:{probability_a:<>,utility_a:<>,...},condition_b:{...}...condition_n{...}}

Most people would answer "C !" or something.

Smarter people might answer "C, with terms and conditions"

Further refined people might answer "if c then C else D else A.probability ..."

But I get major unease if I can't verbalize EVERYTHING.

I am not a psychiatrist or in any way qualified to comment on this. So here I go.

When I was a kid I used to have two sneaking suspicions, and one odd habit.

One: I could make myself invisible if I wanted to. I will not burden you with the specifics of how I knew I could do this, but suffice to say it was a spell I could invoke, coupled with a hand gesture. Once I did this, I could go invisible. However, I only ever did this when alone, and chose somehow never to reveal my power to anyone.

Two: I was the target of aliens who were clandestinely firing their weapons at me all of the time trying to kill me. It just so happened that all of my movements--the gait of my walk, the fact that I moved my hand this way instead of that, that I sat instead of standing, etc.--these movements allowed me to expertly dodge all of the beams and missiles or whatever they were shooting at me.

The habit I had was like a nervous tic. I would blink my eyes, and move my mouth a little. Yes, I would do this compulsively. Sometimes if I bumped my left arm I would then bump my right arm in the same congruent spot. Etc.

All of these are symptomatic of OCD, something I learned much later in life. And all of these beliefs and habits eventually went away on their own. I probably have new ones now I am not aware of--my wife says even now when I am concentrating (on writing, on playing piano, drawing, etc.) I move my mouth in a weird, but predictable way.

My oldest son sometimes shows mild tics of this sort--I am not inside his head but as he has grown I noticed once a thing he did with curling his hand up and down for a while, which he eventually stopped. Now it's a throat-clearing thing he does. I am assuming that will stop, too, but I am keeping an eye and ear out in case it doesn't. I don't mention it to him.

All this by way of commiseration, though of course the experiences I am giving an account of here do not match your experiences. I don't have any solution for you except to say that what you are describing seems like a kind of compulsive overthinking.

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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!

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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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