finished (?) draft of "A Common Misunderstanding; Or ..."

diff --git a/content/drafts/a-common-misunderstanding-or-the-spirit-of-the-staircase-24-january-2009.md b/content/drafts/a-common-misunderstanding-or-the-spirit-of-the-staircase-24-january-2009.md
index 92e4179..6b6fc01 100644 (file)
--- a/content/drafts/a-common-misunderstanding-or-the-spirit-of-the-staircase-24-january-2009.md
+++ b/content/drafts/a-common-misunderstanding-or-the-spirit-of-the-staircase-24-january-2009.md
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Title: A Common Misunderstanding; Or, The Spirit of the Staircase (24 January 2009)
 Title: A Common Misunderstanding; Or, The Spirit of the Staircase (24 January 2009)

-Date: 2020-01-01 
+Date: 2017-12-02 05:00

 Category: other
 Category: other

-Tags: personal
+Tags: anecdotal, personal, two-type taxonomy

 Status: draft
 
 I remember (and the Diary entry helps, too) there was a party/meetup at someone's place down in Sunnyvale, perhaps in honor of Robin being in town. This was a little less than nine years ago, back during the golden age when the Sequences were still being written, when the _M_ and _R_ in _MIRI_ were still an _S_ and an _A_, respectively—before the Eternal September, before everyone was poly, and _long_ before everyone was trans.
 Status: draft
 
 I remember (and the Diary entry helps, too) there was a party/meetup at someone's place down in Sunnyvale, perhaps in honor of Robin being in town. This was a little less than nine years ago, back during the golden age when the Sequences were still being written, when the _M_ and _R_ in _MIRI_ were still an _S_ and an _A_, respectively—before the Eternal September, before everyone was poly, and _long_ before everyone was trans.


@@ -10,25 +10,17 @@ I worked the 0600 to 1500 bookkeeper/customer-service shift at my supermarket da
 
 (I still have the "radical notion" pin, but it's no longer proudly pinned to my backpack. Ideology—in the general case—is not my style anymore.)
 
 
 (I still have the "radical notion" pin, but it's no longer proudly pinned to my backpack. Ideology—in the general case—is not my style anymore.)
 

-The party was amazing, as always, but there's one exchange that haunts me to this day, a moment when I was caught off guard by having been _seen through_ in a way that, at the time, I couldn't permit myself to anticipate or understand. I wish I had an actual transcript of it, so I could pencil in "corrections" of how it should have gone
+The party was amazing, as always, but there's one exchange that haunts me to this day, a moment when I was caught off guard by having been _seen through_ in a way that, at the time, I couldn't permit myself to anticipate or understand. I wish I had an actual transcript of it, so I could pencil in "corrections" of how it _should_ have gone. (Narrative optimization should be a _deliberate_ process: you should keep separate track of what actually happened and what _should_ have happened, rather rather than letting them get blurred together in the murky, unauditable process of reconstructing the scene from an eight-and-change-year-old memory and a Diary entry from the Monday after.)

 
 

+A blonde woman wearing a red dress and black high heels stuck out among the predominantly male throng of geeks. I struck up a conversation with her. (It turned out that we had previously had a tense exchange on the blog in which I had protested that gender-stereotypical behavior shouldn't be conflated with the fact of one's sex, but I didn't know that was her at the time.)

 
 

-Narrative optimization should be deliberate: you should keep separate track of what actually happened and what _should_ have happened, rather than blurring them together.
+At some point (to my eternal regret, I cannot recall the exact context), she casually said something about my desire for social dominance. She said it matter-of-factly, as if she were commenting on something as innocuous and indisputable as my height or hair color.

 
 

-(rather than the narratively-convenient reconstruction of an eight-and-change-year-old memory and a Diary entry from the Monday after), so that I could pencil in corrections of 
-
-[...]
-
-A blonde woman wearing a red dress and black high heels stuck out among the predominantly male throng of geeks.
-
-casually referred to my desire for social dominance.
-
-
-I stammered out a shocked and perhaps unconvincing denial.
+I stammered out a shocked and probably unconvincing denial.

 
 She regarded me skeptically. "You _look_ male," she said.
 
 
 She regarded me skeptically. "You _look_ male," she said.
 

-"But that doesn't mean I'm _happy_ about it!" I burst out defensively, to the apparent surprise of 
+"But that doesn't mean I'm _happy_ about it!" I burst out defensively, to the apparent surprise of the other Robin, who was listening nearby.

 
 The woman's skepticism was unmoved. "I'm not getting a tranny vibe from you," she said.
 
 
 The woman's skepticism was unmoved. "I'm not getting a tranny vibe from you," she said.
 

diff --git a/content/drafts/the-spirit-of-the-staircase-24-january-2009.md b/content/drafts/the-spirit-of-the-staircase-24-january-2009.md
deleted file mode 100644 (file)
index da070dd..0000000
--- a/content/drafts/the-spirit-of-the-staircase-24-january-2009.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,21 +0,0 @@
-Title: A Common Misunderstanding; Or, the Spirit of the Staircase (24 January 2009)
-Date: 2020-01-01 
-Category: other
-Tags: two-type taxonomy
-Status: draft
-
-
-
-A blonde woman wearing
-
-I stammered out a shocked and unconvincing denial.
-
-She regarded me skeptically. "You _look_ male."
-
-"But, but, that doesn't mean I'm _happy_ about it!"
-
-Again that skeptical look. "I'm not getting a tranny vibe from you."
-
-
-
-"Right, you're thinking of the good kind," is what I _should_ have said. "I'm the bad kind."

diff --git a/notes/post_ideas.txt b/notes/post_ideas.txt
index d822212..235244c 100644 (file)
--- a/notes/post_ideas.txt
+++ b/notes/post_ideas.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 CURRENT PUSH—
 1 Dec— Ainslie vs. Pareto
 CURRENT PUSH—
 1 Dec— Ainslie vs. Pareto

-2 Dec— Lesser-Known Demand Curves
-3 Dec— A Common Misunderstanding; Or, ...
+2 Dec— ✓ A Common Misunderstanding; Or, ...
+3 Dec— Lesser-Known Demand Curves

 4 Dec— Don't Negotiate With Terrorist Memeplexes; Or, ... 
 5 Dec— ✓ Interlude XII (four lights)
 6 Dec— There's a Land That I See; Or, The Spirit of Intervention
 4 Dec— Don't Negotiate With Terrorist Memeplexes; Or, ... 
 5 Dec— ✓ Interlude XII (four lights)
 6 Dec— There's a Land That I See; Or, The Spirit of Intervention