What "little" experiences changed the way you percieved things ?
What "little" experiences changed the way you percieved things ?
Idk if "little experience" means something in English, but what I meant is non-life changing/threatening. Things that would otherwise go unnoticed.
For me, it was when I stopped drinking acoholic beverages because.. I ended up finding it boring, I guess.
I started noticing how low key hostile my environment is towards people who dont drink. People started thinking I was sick, depressed, converted to islam, being snob, etc.
Bartenders started to openly mock me when I asked for a lemonade (they still do) : "We dont do that here", "Go to a physician if you need that", "you're in a bar you know ?".
I started realizing how hostile my country/region/groups can be to people who dont drink. Never realized that before.
Edit : typo
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For me, it was the combination of two Linguistic tidbits of info, from uni classes:
- verb modality being split between epistemic and deontic
- Linguistics itself being descriptive, while normative grammar being prescriptive.
I won't go further on what those posh words mean because they were just the "trigger". What changed the way that I perceive things was that, by their powers combined, I realised that there's a deep distinction between
- what we know, what we don't know, what's true or false
- what we want, what we don't want, what we consider good or bad
and that we should never mix both things inside our heads.
I love this ! I sont exactly know the meaning of these words, but the idea itself is crystal clear !
I sont exactly know the meaning of these words,
The posh words? They aren't too important, but:
Modality is how a language allows you to talk about either reality or your attitude towards something (all languages do it). It's split into a bunch of categories, but the biggest ones are
- epistemic - you're talking about reality, things that are either true or false. For example, "the bar doesn't sell you lemonade". And
- deontic - you're talking about your attitude towards something; either "this is good/allowed/should be done" or "this is bad/disapproved/shouldn't be done". For example, "the bar should sell you lemonade."
In the meantime, a grammar for any given language can be either
- descriptive - it informs the reader how speakers of that language speak it; this is what Linguistics does. For example, "a lot of English speakers use «[noun] and me» as the subject." is a descriptive statement.
- prescriptive - it tells you how the author believes that you should be using that language. For example, "people shouldn't say «[noun] and me», they should say «[noun] and I»" would be a prescriptive statement.
You probably noticed that the underlying distinction between epistemic vs. deontic is the same as the one between descriptive and prescriptive. That was what "clicked" me years ago, that made me realise that this distinction is everywhere. And that, if we want clarity of reasoning, we should keep this distinction in mind.
Thanks a lot for the clarification ! I was familiar with "epistemic", although in a different context, but "deontic" was a complete discovery !
I used to mix them up. Once I learned the difference and started making effort to communicate clearly then I began being seen as promotion material in my industry
It has also a big impact in our personal lives. For example, it's damn easier to avoid wishful thinking and doomerism if you keep them distinct, because then you start asking yourself "is this what I really see? Or am I letting my wishes and fears cloud my mind?".