Glancing at the list of my blog posts, neatly organised by year, reveals a distinctly non-Fibonacci-like sequence.
There is the great gushing of 2006 to 2009 (236 in total, between 40 and 76 per year), the just more than one a month 2010, the teetering single digits of 2011-2015 (5,6,5,0,3) and then a series of 1s and 0s. One in 2016, one in 2017, none in 2018, one in 2019, none in 2020 and, prior to the publishing of this post, one in 2021.
So hear we stanned, in a year with 2 posts, the most since 2015. The world was a very different place then! Well, not really. But anyway, the point is, this could be the start of something. A change in the sequence. A crack in the dam wall, signalling a Great New Gushing to rival that of those early heady days.
Can any other body parts be used as an adverb like heady? Brainy? Army? Someone can be leggy. But not legsy, but yes handsy (ugh).
yoUtubE has recommended me:
- highlights of the Lakers-Suns (should really be Suns-Lakers, Suns are hosting) Game 1. I'm trying to cut back my NBA consumption, specially since The Dubs carked it.
- copyBest relaxing piano studio ghibli, which is fair enough as the kids have been listening to it at bedtime.
- interview with a catatonic schizophrenic. i'm not sure why.
- daniel dennett: arguments for atheism. i watched a daniel dennett clip a while back, iwas reminded of him because i stumbled across this awesome 80s video doco thing made about the mind and Hofstadter, and i think Dennett's in there somewhere. at any rate they co-produced the great the Mind's I. not really interested in the arguments for atheism bit, but i do like dan.
- obviously the recommendations continue forever (has anyone checked that?) but the one that stood out, number 7 i believe, is Most Humiliating Goals That SHOCKED The World. What can you say about this. it's got five classic clickbait tropes.
- Most (not quite or very or least)
- Humiliating (the witnessing of shame is a powerful hermodisiac*)
- shocked (another emotion that leaves our brains soaking wet with dopamine)
- all caps baby
- the world (not the eastern hemisphere, the county etc)
And so we come to the point, as if there ever were one: persuasion
So sayeth Dr Sue Knight, when we try to persuade someone to do something or believe something**, we use arguments - we put forward reasons - in an effort to convince. (we live in an age of reason, even when they're bad the powers that be still feel compelled to at least appear to have valid reasons)
Certain kinds of bad arguments are often more persuasive than appeals to reason and truth. When it comes to persuasion, fallacious arguments very often succeed where good arguments fail (so true!)
Advertisers, politicians and probably all of us at one time or another capitalise on this fact (again, very true!). dammit we know we are hoodwinking folks, and not respecting their right to make an evidence-based decision (not sure this is a right or where this comes from, but seems legit)
we may be convinced we are right and that it is in everyone's interests to adopt our point of view (hmm). we may just be brazenly trying to advance our interests (getting closer to the heart of it)
regardless, when we knowingly employ fallacious arguments we would seem to be guilty of attempting to deceive.
it is inevitable that we all will, at times, fall victim to such deceit on the part of others (big hmm. and also to ourselves!)
Thanks Dr Knight, you make some great points. it's a sobering thought indeed to reflect on how many times i've been bamboozled, or attempted to hoodwink some poor schmuck.
and of course we return to the esteemed Tim Finn, whose track persuasion is not one of my favourites. but i've been listening the hell out of his brother's band's temple of low men. good stuff.
*If aphrodisiac is after Aphrodite, goddess of love, then hermodisiac is after Hermes, god of screens and the internet
** note that believing is contrasted here with doing, but why can't believing be something we do? What are you up to? I've been believing.
