well, look at that...
I found a stash of not-posted LJ entries in the computer-moving shuffle. They exist because sometimes I write fic comments or LJ entries or my shopping list or whatnot in Notepad, and post it when I get to the "reply" button or "update" page or whatnot.
...sometimes, evidently, I don't get around to it, so there's this interrupted entries. I think it's kind of cool, so I'll post them tomorrow, barring First Day Of Classes eating my head.
Also, I have a new social theory in testing. It's called the Theory of Conversational Priority. Simply put, when somebody is talking to you there's a hierarchy to the importance they've assigned to information, and more important information is imparted first. Therefore, if your friend, just hypothetically, says "my in-laws rolled their truck. They had to rent a car," you can safely assume that not only are their in-laws alive, they're also relatively unhurt. Even if your friend HATED their in-laws, generally blood and dismemberment still is rated more important than renting a car, if for vastly different reasons than someone who likes their in-laws.
In that vein, if your friend, also hypothetically speaking, tells you "Mutual Friend's little sister got in a car accident this morning, the car's totaled," you can safely assume that the little sister is still alive, because dead bodies rate higher than cars for most people. (However, this hypothetical little sister may or may not have a hypothetical concussion, but the Mutual Friend is not taking her to the hospital for hypothetical retarded reasons about waiting for someone else to get off work... but that's another, not hypothetical at all, headdesk moment.)
So, this is the Theory of Conversational Priority: if information is of hierarchical importance, with more important information being imparted first, you can reasonably determine the answers to more important questions based on the order in which information was imparted.
So.
...sometimes, evidently, I don't get around to it, so there's this interrupted entries. I think it's kind of cool, so I'll post them tomorrow, barring First Day Of Classes eating my head.
Also, I have a new social theory in testing. It's called the Theory of Conversational Priority. Simply put, when somebody is talking to you there's a hierarchy to the importance they've assigned to information, and more important information is imparted first. Therefore, if your friend, just hypothetically, says "my in-laws rolled their truck. They had to rent a car," you can safely assume that not only are their in-laws alive, they're also relatively unhurt. Even if your friend HATED their in-laws, generally blood and dismemberment still is rated more important than renting a car, if for vastly different reasons than someone who likes their in-laws.
In that vein, if your friend, also hypothetically speaking, tells you "Mutual Friend's little sister got in a car accident this morning, the car's totaled," you can safely assume that the little sister is still alive, because dead bodies rate higher than cars for most people. (However, this hypothetical little sister may or may not have a hypothetical concussion, but the Mutual Friend is not taking her to the hospital for hypothetical retarded reasons about waiting for someone else to get off work... but that's another, not hypothetical at all, headdesk moment.)
So, this is the Theory of Conversational Priority: if information is of hierarchical importance, with more important information being imparted first, you can reasonably determine the answers to more important questions based on the order in which information was imparted.
So.