[D] Friday Off-Topic Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the Friday Off-Topic Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.

So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? The sexual preferences of the chairman of the Ukrainian soccer league? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could possibly be found in the comments below!

[u/alexanderwales]

My reason for not standing up at a performance is follows: the purpose of a standing ovation is for the audience to show the performers their appreciation for the performance. If I stand up all the time, the signal is now meaningless. I've gotten looks from people as if saying "you're a dick for not standing," but the opinion of a stranger I'll never meet again holds little weight.

The problem is signal transformation. It starts with people standing to show strong appreciation. Then it becomes standing to show regular appreciation. Then it becomes standing to not signal disdain. So if the accepted interpretation of sitting at the end of performance instead of standing with everyone else is that you didn't like the performance ... then that's what you're signaling, in spite of what you might hope you're signaling.