Hi Harv,

not long ago Dick wrote a post where he gave his own answer: basically it was that even if he felt he wasn't getting very far persuading or explaining to you, he found he was still clarifying his own thoughts along the way.

You have also provided your own answer in general when you once said that you like to give people a run for their money.

It is true that very useful comments have come from Dick, that clarify his work to the rest of us, resulting from talking to you. I can vouch for the fact that you are not bad at giving posters a reasonably tough time (as does Luis Hamburgh) which can both clarify issues and even be a catalyst for new discovery. It's important though that people understand what skeptical analysis of a subject is about and don't take your or Luis's challenges personally. I sure appreciate the opportunity to clarify the issues.

So Dick has given us the reason for the long dialogues with you; but it remains a mystery as to why he should be so difficult with others.

Perhaps my ideas just confuse him. But given that for many years he has not got others to understand him that well; maybe this suggests a need for other ways of describing what he has done. I don't see why he should (supposedly) abandon rationality and be inconsistent and evasive and so on with others.

There's my two cents.

Thanks,

Alan