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<blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5900844" data-attributes="member: 8835">that was my other point.&nbsp; Brains are comparison engines. It categorizes things, and uses that to rapidly bring memories to mind, identify objects, and make decisions.&nbsp; I like chocolate ice cream, so I ignore all the other flavors on the shelf while I scan for chocolate flavors so I can make my selection from the shorter list.&nbsp; People do this all the time.&nbsp; I simply see it because I write this kind of software all the time.None of this makes people mean or bad.&nbsp; I know Danny's black.&nbsp; If I were at an Enworld meetup and Danny was one of a few black people in the room, and [MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION] was asking me to point out Danny so he could introduce himself, I might say &quot;He's the black guy by the punch bowl.&quot;&nbsp; I'm not being mean, judgemental or racist.&nbsp; I'm just using the fastest means to filter the list of people in the room so I can point it out another person.If I were self-concious about political correctness, I suppose I could struggle to define Danny in some way that narrows the candidates in the room to something that differentiates him from everybody else without using skin color or weight as a descriptor.the usual goal of any categorization is to use the fewest, simplest search terms to bring about the smallest result set of desired values.&nbsp; &quot;Black guy in a Sabaton t-shirt&quot; might be sufficient.&nbsp; It's possible that only one person in the room is wearing a Sabaton t-shirt, but you'd have to wade through all the people to view all the shirts to know that.&nbsp; Being able to quickly see there's 3 black people makes it very easy to scan their shirts and spot which one is the Sabaton wearer.What I caution, is knee jerk reactionism to &quot;labeling or categorizing people is bad&quot; because of a desire to avoid negative stereotyping or racism.&nbsp; Treating people badly is bad.&nbsp; Some people define arbitrary categories to justify treating those members badly.&nbsp; Obviously, that's bad.I don't think anybody here wants to treat anybody badly.&nbsp; Hopefully nobody's a racist or mean to people with mental illnesses.&nbsp; This topic has strayed to how to filter people you choose to spend time with from &quot;have you noticed that some of your players might be crazy?&quot;I wouldn't know a crazy person* unless their behavior was extreme.&nbsp; In which case, I think I can justify being cautious around somebody who's difficulties are extreme enough that you should be cautious for the behavior COULD hurt you.*and I probably just offended somebody.&nbsp; I don't know the definition of crazy, but I assume it means, trying to kill me or make me wear a suit of jello to protect me from Al Gore's mind control waves.&nbsp; People with diagnosed mental illnesses don't automatically ping on my crazy-meter.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Janx, post: 5900844, member: 8835"] that was my other point. Brains are comparison engines. It categorizes things, and uses that to rapidly bring memories to mind, identify objects, and make decisions. I like chocolate ice cream, so I ignore all the other flavors on the shelf while I scan for chocolate flavors so I can make my selection from the shorter list. People do this all the time. I simply see it because I write this kind of software all the time. None of this makes people mean or bad. I know Danny's black. If I were at an Enworld meetup and Danny was one of a few black people in the room, and [MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION] was asking me to point out Danny so he could introduce himself, I might say "He's the black guy by the punch bowl." I'm not being mean, judgemental or racist. I'm just using the fastest means to filter the list of people in the room so I can point it out another person. If I were self-concious about political correctness, I suppose I could struggle to define Danny in some way that narrows the candidates in the room to something that differentiates him from everybody else without using skin color or weight as a descriptor. the usual goal of any categorization is to use the fewest, simplest search terms to bring about the smallest result set of desired values. "Black guy in a Sabaton t-shirt" might be sufficient. It's possible that only one person in the room is wearing a Sabaton t-shirt, but you'd have to wade through all the people to view all the shirts to know that. Being able to quickly see there's 3 black people makes it very easy to scan their shirts and spot which one is the Sabaton wearer. What I caution, is knee jerk reactionism to "labeling or categorizing people is bad" because of a desire to avoid negative stereotyping or racism. Treating people badly is bad. Some people define arbitrary categories to justify treating those members badly. Obviously, that's bad. I don't think anybody here wants to treat anybody badly. Hopefully nobody's a racist or mean to people with mental illnesses. This topic has strayed to how to filter people you choose to spend time with from "have you noticed that some of your players might be crazy?" I wouldn't know a crazy person* unless their behavior was extreme. In which case, I think I can justify being cautious around somebody who's difficulties are extreme enough that you should be cautious for the behavior COULD hurt you. *and I probably just offended somebody. I don't know the definition of crazy, but I assume it means, trying to kill me or make me wear a suit of jello to protect me from Al Gore's mind control waves. People with diagnosed mental illnesses don't automatically ping on my crazy-meter. [/QUOTE]

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