[skulk]

This is the stupidest nitpick, but it's not really Pavlovian conditioning (as mentioned in the last paragraph) but rather operant conditioning. Pavlovian, or classical conditioning is the triggering of a biological response after a neutral stimulus (ring a bell before feeding each time and the dog will salivate when it hears the bell even if there's no food anywhere nearby).

Operant conditioning is where the agent learns that an action produces an outcome and learns to perform (or not perform) certain actions to get the desired outcome.

[throwaway150]

Whether stupidest nitpick or not, thank you for posting this. I learned Pavlovian conditioning better from your comment. This is the kind of comment I come to HN for. Appreciate it.

[blazers777]

it might not be anything, but the neighbor simply yielding to every little rule in the head of another neighbor.

we haven't established that the neighbor knows whether or not someone is screwing with him.

when my building had a person like that, who played these games all day for decades, some either just ignored all of it, while others simply moved out when they could.

[internet_points]

this is why I read hn