Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality

That's not Sherlock-scanning, that's forming opinions about someone based on superficial details.

Sounds like No, Except Yes to me. There's a difference, qualitatively?

Of course there is. You don't need to be a person-scientist to form subjective opinions. "You're so ten minutes ago" isn't a hypothesis that requires empirical testing. Of course, it could be that I'm just more cynical than you are.

Ah, but I'm not talking about subjective opinions, I'm talking about objective observations bereft of judgment value.

This person's sense of fashion says something about their tastes, their budget, the way they want to be seen, their degree of self-awareness. The way they carry themselves speaks of their fitness, their coordination, the kid of sport they do, which says something about the kind of person they are. The way they speak, their body language, sends unconscious, hard-to-control, and therefore very reliable signals of their inner state of confidence, agitation, trust, dominance, curiosity, openness, etc. Their language, the words they employ, the quality of their diction and grammar, says something about their education, the timbre and harmonics of their voice, the way they emphasize some words, says something about their emotions.

Etc.

Perceptive people feel it as an "impression", more intuitive people break it down into "details to be noticed and contrasted among each other". Doesn't give you all the information, especially if the person is good at dissembling, but looking for inconsistencies and "slips" is extremely useful in character judgment.

That's not something I esp. associate with women.

It's been much too long

I just understood why Assassination Classroom felt so familiar. Imagine Quirell as a human Starfish Alien. Wait, what am I saying, that's redundant.

Ah, Harry, Harry, he plays you like a fiddle and he doesn't even have to cheat. Just with the truth.

EY said he wasn't going to start updating until he had the whole thing written, right?

Yes.

It's Quiet… Too Quiet

I started looking into "Assassination Classroom"- it looks hilarious.

edited 29th Jan '15 9:59:57 AM by DeMarquis

It kind of is, though it's a bit of a slow starter.

I made a list of "Explicit" chapter titles for HPMOR, based on the events of the story rather than the science involved.

It's finally finishing? I'm not sure how I feel about this. Can the story be wrapped up in a satisfying manner? Can an arc that lasts for 88,000 words be considered an arc? Can we convince the podcast guy to do a live-reading of the last chapter? Can I stop saying things like they're questions?

Why can't an arc be 88k words long?

Anyway, I don't really see how Quirrel played Harry in this chapter. He almost certainly played Harry in ch102 though.

"I graded you with the same grade I got at your age"

"WWWAAAAAAAAAAAAA, THE HONOUR! YOU BREAK MY HEART, PROFESSOR, THIS IS SO NICE OF YOU! I CAN'T EVEN SPEAK MY GRATITUDE!"

"Yes."

the first harry potter book was less then 80k. This arc is 1/6th the entirety of HPMOR. That is either one really long plotline or several all cramped together. That isn't necessarily bad but reader fatigue can set in if your story is just taking ages to develop.

I think I'll wait till 104 comes out then jump back and read from like chapter 90 or something as I've completely lost the plot at this point.

How many times does it have to be said? HPMOR isn't going to be 7 years long! The first year is the entire plot line.

edited 30th Jan '15 7:29:11 PM by storyyeller

That did indeed seem like a rather heavy-handed move from Quirrel.

I don't think anyone's suggesting that HPMOR will cover the full seven years. We're just comparing the length of this story to the books in the original series.

@storyyeller, The Handle: Huh, that does makes perfect sense. Though in that case, it seems Dumbledore and Snape weren't thinking deeply enough when they tried to figure out that part - leaving behind an obvious clue might have fooled the Aurors, but those two should have thought of the possibility of a red herring.

edited 30th Jan '15 9:35:14 PM by ashnazg

They thought that it was Voldemort sending them a message, but they couldn't figure out what the message was. When you go down the wrong track like that, it's easy to get stuck and not consider alternatives.

edited 31st Jan '15 1:36:57 AM by storyyeller

It would have been funny if they had brought Harry in as a consultant to help them figure out what happened, and it would have made sense, seeing as Dumbledore considers Harry capable of understanding You-Know-Who. Kira Task Force Shenanigans ensue.

With the final arc about to start, I might as well wonder out loud...it's interesting that Sirius has had basically zero screentime in this series, barring a possible reference during the Azkaban breakout. Is he only going to turn up in the final arc, or just going to end up as Mr Not-Appearing-In-This-Fanfic? (Pettigrew, too.)

This was a rather offhand remark, but when Quirrel mentioned a ritual to "summon Death", could that turn out to be something for creating Dementors? Or is Harry going to summon the concept of death itself so he can punch it out of existence?

And I can't help but wonder if, when Snape spoke of Voldemort being "very cunning indeed" after their discussion of the Dark Mark, that he was trying to hint at something else he'd done. Another level of secrecy-binding? Perhaps not on the Dark Mark itself (it's hard to see what purpose would be served by deceiving his enemies at a yet deeper level than this, other than For the Lulz), but maybe something else...

Edit: Oh, and did Harry totally forget about his early goal of identifying search-and-retrieval spells? As he points out, it's not exactly critical information but it would drastically improve his access to critical information. Especially as he's about to get all research-mode on the Philosopher's Stone.

edited 14th Feb '15 6:51:31 AM by ashnazg

I don't think it's likely that Sirius will show up.

but when Quirrel mentioned a ritual to "summon Death", could that turn out to be something for creating Dementors?

I think that was the implication.

New chapter is out. I knew Harry was Voldmort!

Oops, I probably shouldn't have left spoilers off.

I've been following HPMOR (didn't know there was a dedicated TV Tropes forum regarding it, sadly) for years now, and I've generally always liked EY's writing. Chapter 104 blew me away. The scene where Harry is putting clues together in his mind was simply put one of the best scenes I've ever read. It was more exciting to me than a well written fight scene (which I'm a sucker for), to the point that I had get myself to stop reading it so damn fast and stop and re-read. I need more writing like that in my life, so if anyone can point to other authors with similar writing ability with scenes that pull you like that, I would be immensely grateful.