@johncarlosbaez In the contexts I'm seeing it, "Strong opinions, weakly held" is supposed to be a *good* thing! It really doesn't sound good at all to me!
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@lindsey @johncarlosbaez fwiw in that context I’ve always interpreted “strong” as “clear”. In the sense of “take a clear position but be prepared to change it in the face of convincing evidence/argument”, rather than having a vague, often confusingly caveated, position that’s hard for others to figure out what you mean (and thus to know what evidence/argument might be effective)
@lindsey@recurse.social @johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz I have some history with this phrase...
It was first explained to me in the context of being a Brit working in a US company for the first time, where my new manager mentioned that I was putting forward good ideas in a tone that to Americans sounded like I didn't believe in them. His comment was that it was better to state an opinion clearly and without excessive caveats and let it stand and fall on its merits, being willing to give way if you were convinced by the feedback that it wasn't the best option.
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@lindsey@recurse.social @johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz That was really helpful!
Unfortunately, since then I've mainly seen it used as an excuse for loud voices to drown out the quiet ("well, if I can't state this opinion forcefully it's not a real conversation") or to justify a lack of due diligence/research ("well, I have a gut feel so I'll just go for that strongly until someone else does the work to point out why it's a really stupid idea - but it was weakly held so I don't need to feel any guilt!")
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@mavnn @lindsey - it's true that the British and probably people from many other cultures are too careful to be taken seriously in US culture, just as US people tend to seem rude in those more polite cultures. There are even videos on how deal with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZgHfvuEWOg&list=PL9bzCTKB7rCbZIXSR8YZI_mILnzmKnHHm&index=3
Why the British Rarely Say What They Mean (and How to Understand Them Anyway)
YouTube
@lindsey - Yeah, it doesn't sound good to me. It sounds like someone doesn't care about behaving in a way proportionate to the evidence backing one's actions!