[Basic] Skill of the week: Cooking

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

[/I]

Indeed. But somethings which you are academically accustomed to can sound strange when you see a specific example of them.

People, Americans especially, hate making important decisions on logic alone. The more important the issue, the more raw emotion rules.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

People, Americans especially, hate making important decisions on logic alone. The more important the issue, the more raw emotion rules.

Recent cognitive psychological research suggests that this dualistic opposition of logic and emotion is mistaken. People who are neurologically impaired in certain ways that deaden emotion become incapable of making decisions logically; the can examine all the possible assumptions and their implications over and over and over, but they can never actually come down to a specific conclusion. Apparently the basic emotional sense of positive/negative or for me/against me is part of what logic is built on.

Bill Stoddard

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

But somethings which you are academically accustomed to can sound strange when you see a specific example of them.

I'm aware of that effect, but in fact I actively enjoy the sensation of strangeness, to the point that I actively seek out such examples and implications, to try to decenter my brain a little from its attachment to my own culture.

Bill Stoddard

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Recent cognitive psychological research suggests that this dualistic opposition of logic and emotion is mistaken. People who are neurologically impaired in certain ways that deaden emotion become incapable of making decisions logically; the can examine all the possible assumptions and their implications over and over and over, but they can never actually come down to a specific conclusion. Apparently the basic emotional sense of positive/negative or for me/against me is part of what logic is built on.

Bill Stoddard

I'm not a fan of giving too much weight to brain damaged individuals as evidence for normal function.

Also, regardless of how important feeling is to basic prioritization, I think irrational overreliance on emotion in defiance of logical thought is something we can all agree is bad and increasing in commonness in some cultures.

[Dustin]

Back on topic, thanks to this thread I'm now aware that Housekeeping has a food prep aspect I wasn't aware of, and that a successful Cooking roll isn't just "decent meal for the party", it's "if rat's that good, I'll have it again" or "squirrel stew for 30, line up boys".

[Not]

Originally Posted by Dustin

Back on topic, thanks to this thread I'm now aware that Housekeeping has a food prep aspect I wasn't aware of, and that a successful Cooking roll isn't just "decent meal for the party", it's "if rat's that good, I'll have it again" or "squirrel stew for 30, line up boys".

A successful roll means the meal was enjoyed. One supposes that the GM can penalize for unsavory ingredients, but a critical success just might turn month-old rotted compost heap vegetables into prize-winning kimchee.

Housekeeping's "clean up the evidence" clause makes me want to pair it with Forensics for a really thorough frame-up job. Guess we'll get to that in 19 weeks or so.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Making things from scratch only seems like highly skilled Cooking to pre-packaged loving Americans, of the sort I used to be.
Now my GF has failed at boiling water and making boxed pancakes, so defaults all around. She put the scrambled dough "thing" picture on her Facebook.

Also the prepaked food is a relatively new thing, and housekeeping was making the family's dinner meal before they existed so it's obviously NOT limited to that.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Recent cognitive psychological research suggests that this dualistic opposition of logic and emotion is mistaken. People who are neurologically impaired in certain ways that deaden emotion become incapable of making decisions logically; the can examine all the possible assumptions and their implications over and over and over, but they can never actually come down to a specific conclusion. Apparently the basic emotional sense of positive/negative or for me/against me is part of what logic is built on.

I've been pointing this out for a long long time when explaining how emotions apply even to a sub-NAI, but you're the first person I encounter who doesn't dismiss it without consideration - probably thanks to this research.

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I'm not a fan of giving too much weight to brain damaged individuals as evidence for normal function.

Cases of damaged A consistently result in inability to perform B, then it is logical that A is at least required to do B. The specific mechanism will require more research, of course.

[Phil Masters]

I suspect that the visual appearance aspect of restaurant food is a little bit of having an artistic eye for the purpose, and a large bit of having Cooking skill at a high enough level that you can afford to take small penalties to the roll to make stuff with a glossy exterior without compromising the flavour, you know what will set reliably in different sizes of mold, you always make everything come together at the same moment so you can then arrange the presentation nicely with all the components, and so on.

If one wanted to get picky, I guess one could create a perk, "Food Presentation", which allows a Cooking roll to make a plate look amazing without compromising the taste. Perks that allow skills to be used in slightly non-standard ways are generally valid, after all.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I've been pointing this out for a long long time when explaining how emotions apply even to a sub-NAI, but you're the first person I encounter who doesn't dismiss it without consideration - probably thanks to this research.

I'm another, if you're counting. It seems obvious to me that you can't get "oughts" from pure reason.