There's an irritating circumstance I call The Black Hat Bobcat, or Bobcatting for short. The Blackhat Bobcat is when there's a terrible behavior that comes up often enough to matter, but rarely enough that it vanishes in the noise of other generally positive feedback.
xkcd, A-Minus-MinusThe alt-text for this comic is illuminating.
"You can do this one in thirty times and still have 97% positive feedback."
I would like you to contemplate this comic and alt-text as though it were deep wisdom handed down from a sage who lived atop a mountaintop.
I.
Black Hat Bobcatting is when someone (let's call them Bob) does something obviously lousy, but very infrequently.
If you're standing right there when the Bobcatting happens, it's generally clear that this is not what is supposed to happen, and sometimes seems pretty likely it's intentional. After all, how exactly do you pack a [...]
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First published:
April 6th, 2025
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Ry9KCEDBMGWoEMGAj/the-lizardman-and-the-black-hat-bobcat
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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