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(@jamesbritt I accidentally hit the downmod arrow (I meant to upmod) . Could someone up mod this please? Thanks in advance.) "Sure, you're entitled to believe

(@jamesbritt I accidentally hit the downmod arrow (I meant to upmod) . Could someone up mod this please? Thanks in advance.) "Sure, you're entitled to believe what you want, but if you make it public then expect others to ask questions, and absent any evidence or a good argument, to scoff." The "make it public" is key. Sure we are not having a debate, but then no one is asking for results from double blind randomized trials either. For me to say something (and expect people to accept the truth of what you say - I could be honestly mistaken for example), asking for data is a good thing. It forces me to reflect on why I say what I say and if the "why" is weak, then maybe I need to rethink. ".yet my opinion isn't valid because I don't have research data to back it up?" Your opinion is valid as an opinion. it isn't valid enough to be accepted by other people without data/logic/whatever backing it up. It might help if any such request, even if abrasively phrased, could be reinterpreted as"What makes you think so?".

jamesbritt 17y ago
'For me to say something (and expect people to accept the truth of what you say - I could be honestly mistaken for example), asking for data is a good thing. It forces me to reflect on why I say what I say and if the "why" is weak, then maybe I need to rethink.' That's basically why I've gotten into the habit of asking for backing material when I read what strikes me as flat assertions with no supportive argument. It's not to turn every casual discussion into an interrogation, but because it helps (as best I've been able to tell) keep the overall quality higher by a) getting people to pause a bit before tossing off casual, overly broad, and often ill-reasoned, comments (e.g. "Perl 6 will never be released"), and b) often gets people to provide links and data. In the best scenarios, that means some of us learn something new.

jamesbritt 17y ago

'For me to say something (and expect people to accept the truth of what you say - I could be honestly mistaken for example), asking for data is a good thing. It forces me to reflect on why I say what I say and if the "why" is weak, then maybe I need to rethink.' That's basically why I've gotten into the habit of asking for backing material when I read what strikes me as flat assertions with no supportive argument. It's not to turn every casual discussion into an interrogation, but because it helps (as best I've been able to tell) keep the overall quality higher by a) getting people to pause a bit before tossing off casual, overly broad, and often ill-reasoned, comments (e.g. "Perl 6 will never be released"), and b) often gets people to provide links and data. In the best scenarios, that means some of us learn something new.