<story><title>Bullshit Ability as an Honest Signal of Intelligence</title><url>https://psyarxiv.com/aru3f/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jessriedel</author><text>FYI: Philosopher Harry Frankfurt wrote the classic essay &amp;quot;On Bullshit&amp;quot;, defining the concept.  Unlike lying&amp;#x2F;fraud, where falsehood is instrumental, Frankfurt defined bullshit as potentially false speech where the truth &lt;i&gt;simply wasn&amp;#x27;t important&lt;/i&gt;.  Bullshit is characterized by giving the &lt;i&gt;surface appearance&lt;/i&gt; of confidence, intelligence, or a convincing argument; whether it&amp;#x27;s actually true or not is besides the point.&lt;p&gt;The essay is only 20 pages and available here:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ruby.fgcu.edu&amp;#x2F;courses&amp;#x2F;twimberley&amp;#x2F;EnviroPhilo&amp;#x2F;bullshit.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ruby.fgcu.edu&amp;#x2F;courses&amp;#x2F;twimberley&amp;#x2F;EnviroPhilo&amp;#x2F;bullshit...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>grawprog</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve always thought of bullshit as being more about what you don&amp;#x27;t say than what you say. It&amp;#x27;s a lot easier to get away with bullshit when your bullshit consists of truths with a healthy dose of leaving important details that affect the implications of your statements out.&lt;p&gt;Such as something like, &amp;#x27;we&amp;#x27;ve seen a dramatic increase in revenue&amp;#x27; while leaving out the dramatic increase in expenditures and downplaying that profit hasn&amp;#x27;t really changed.&lt;p&gt;Or the kind of bullshit large companies use with the environment or social issues. Things like, our company uses 75% recycled products and cares about diversity, while leaving out that they destroy thousands of hectares of natural ecosystems, pollute land and water, oppress developing nations and murder their protesting citizens in the jungle while employing their children as slave labour. Meanwhile, they tell you how much they care about your rich, empty, disconnected technocrat concerns about the world and make you believe you&amp;#x27;re making a difference by buying their garbage and investing
in their company.</text></comment>
<story><title>Bullshit Ability as an Honest Signal of Intelligence</title><url>https://psyarxiv.com/aru3f/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jessriedel</author><text>FYI: Philosopher Harry Frankfurt wrote the classic essay &amp;quot;On Bullshit&amp;quot;, defining the concept.  Unlike lying&amp;#x2F;fraud, where falsehood is instrumental, Frankfurt defined bullshit as potentially false speech where the truth &lt;i&gt;simply wasn&amp;#x27;t important&lt;/i&gt;.  Bullshit is characterized by giving the &lt;i&gt;surface appearance&lt;/i&gt; of confidence, intelligence, or a convincing argument; whether it&amp;#x27;s actually true or not is besides the point.&lt;p&gt;The essay is only 20 pages and available here:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ruby.fgcu.edu&amp;#x2F;courses&amp;#x2F;twimberley&amp;#x2F;EnviroPhilo&amp;#x2F;bullshit.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ruby.fgcu.edu&amp;#x2F;courses&amp;#x2F;twimberley&amp;#x2F;EnviroPhilo&amp;#x2F;bullshit...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>clairity</author><text>i think i&amp;#x27;ve read this at some point but taking a quick look to refesh myself, i was struck on the first page by the word &lt;i&gt;procrustean&lt;/i&gt;, which apparently means something like &amp;quot;rigidly but arbitrarily specified&amp;quot;[0], possibly obliquely related to hard-shelled sea creatures. neat word.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Procrustes#Cultural_references&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Procrustes#Cultural_references&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>