Sunday, July 06, 2008

It seems readers tire of my blog quickly.

     Is it my breath? Maybe I need a new mouthwash. Seriously, I think much of it has to do with the fact that I don't fit in neatly with expectations of "what people think." I don't categorize well.
     I remember reading that people can model around 150 mindsets. These can be models of individuals or aggregates. So, you might be able to model the thoughts of "Uncle Bob," "Aunt Agatha," "Neighbor Dennis," and "fundamentalist christian." Fundamentalist christian are sufficiently similar in their beliefs that (unless you deal in the day-to-day life of a particular one) they may be effectively modelled as one mindset. Another mindset is "standard atheist." Many of you can probably guess, on the basis of someone being atheist, the person's views on a decent-sized range of topics. Now, to be sure, there are atheists who don't "fit the mold." They would need to be modelled separately or placed in a different group.
     I don't fit any mold. If you try to predict my beliefs based on any group, you will get a high error rate. There will generally be some error rate dealing with anyone based on the group. But most people seem to categorize well. Indeed, a lot of humor relies on this. We have all met "people like that" for many different categories.

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