Intellectually curious doesn't necessarily overrule base human tendencies.

They may be more likely to have the capacity, but no way it's amy kind of guarantee.

That's a curiously limited form of curiosity, if it doesn't even examine the base tendencies of the operating human.

Individual human behaviour is full of little seeming hypocrisies and counter intuitiveness when looked at from the outside. There's usually some explanation that makes sense to the individual themselves or a blind spot they're in denial about or don't realise they have.

A lot of human behaviour is learned and becomes habitualised rather than logically thought through. Habits are sub-conscious and therefore logic doesn't (as) often get applied.

I think you'll find at least 1/4 of HN comments are indicative of stating things from a place of strong instinctive tribalism, but this crowd are just very slightly better at using words to defend our position in a more noble way.

That's OK, it shows we're human, it's not all AI slop here (yet?).

I guess being smart sometimes doesn’t lead you to have a more accurate opinion, but to develop more sophisticated rhetorical devices to defend your inaccurate opinion?

Oh man, just wait until you see the research on fMRI timing on when decision making vs rationalization parts of the brain engage.

Hint: rationalization tends to be after.

Not to say that it can’t be overridden with training and/or self-reflection/self-skepticism, but first reactions tend to allows follow this pattern.

I'm aware of that, but opinions aren't quick decisions, they form over time, so that might be a different mechanism at work.

Edit: hmm, I suppose voicing your hot take about a news piece is a quick decision though.

Yeah. I’ve been steadily figuring out why the ‘strong, silent type’ used to be 1) so much more common, and 2) hated by a certain type of personality, and 3) might be a better approach than anyone wants to think about.

"Intellectually curious" on hn is either the soft glove on the fist of moderation or a thought terminating mallet against opposing views.

I’d refer you back to the statement of a primarily US based audience.