10.) One failure mode:
There's a thing you REALLY don't want to be obliged to do. You REALLY SUPER don't want to accidentally "promise" to do it, or be misinterpreted as promising it.
So you kind of "overcommunicate" but your point doesn't get across.
Conversation
11.) think of, like, the Satanism/Christianity relationship. The "point" of Satanism is anti-Christianity. Upside-down crosses = "I really, really don't want anyone to mistake me for a Christian. I'm the OPPOSITE of Christian."
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12.) but Satanism isn't relevant to a non-Christian, and in the same way, attempts to communicate "I DIDN'T promise X" can be superfluous/irrelevant or offputting to people who didn't expect X
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13.) Or the attempt to communicate "I DON'T promise X" can fail because you're so passionate that you become imprecise, and nobody understands what it is you're not promising
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14.) Or you try to say "I DON'T promise X" and people just don't believe you, because surely nobody would refuse to do X, right?
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15.) And disclaimers REALLY don't work in social contexts where "keeping promises" isn't a widely held value in the first place.
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16.) One way of interpreting the Bhagavad Gita might be about promises.
Arjun, on the day of the battle, CAN'T fulfill all his duties and still have his family alive.
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17.) to the extent that he's "implicitly promised himself" to achieve a good outcome, he's going to be guilty and miserable. The unfulfilled promise leaves a residue.
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18.) So, "just fulfill your duties, let the outcomes fall as they may, you're not on the hook for the outcomes" frees you up to move/act without worry.
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19.) the subtler, more consequentialist version would be "do the thing that has the best expected outcome, but then let the actual outcome fall as it may, you're not on the hook for how a dice roll comes out."
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Replying to
You likely know this, but if not… this is precisely the doctrine of “nishkam karma” in the Gita.

