4 ms·

Cut her some slack. She did confess to sleeping through chemistry and otherwise wrote and illustrated a good article, while pounding bourbon.

Groxx 17y ago
It's not the article writer in particular, the article is basically fine in other respects, it's people in general. I see far more people using "osmosis" more often than "diffusion", despite almost never using it correctly. For example, those "Learning through osmosis" signs in libraries, articles, shirts, etc. absolutely abound. It clearly isn't working if you think that's osmosis. Or there are tons of services with quotes like this: http://www.languagetutoring.co.uk/LearningThroughOsmosis.html http://www.languagetutoring.co.uk/LearningThroughOsmosis.htm... Evidently they aren't tutoring science. Osmosis vs diffusion is not difficult to understand. It just seems people use it to sound smarter, and thus fail miserably 99% of the time.
- glhaynes 17y ago
  "Osmosis vs diffusion is not difficult to understand. It just seems people use it to sound smarter, and thus fail miserably 99% of the time." They fail 99% of the time with you, but if the vast majority of the people don't know the difference (as you said they don't), then the misusers aren't failing with the vast majority of listeners. :)
  - Groxx 17y ago
    Incorrect statements are incorrect, whether or not anyone's around to hear the tree fall in the forest. I'll accept ramchip's explanation through simile, but quite literally that's the first time I've heard it (I may live under a rock in that, though). Are you then implying that anything that the majority believes - heck, lets make it 99% - is true, and should be accepted? Lets put it in geek-friendly terms, dating it back a number of years, so it strikes a chord with yc users: "Windows is the only operating system."
    - glhaynes 17y ago
      I was replying to your statement: "It just seems people use it to sound smarter, and thus fail miserably 99% of the time." I'm saying they fail to sound smarter with you but perhaps succeed in sounding smarter [not at being right] with the vast majority.
- ramchip 17y ago
  I wouldn't say "learning through osmosis" is necessarily wrong. Knowledge is like water. Throw a human in an environment with concentrated knowledge and he will absorb some. Of course, this isn't strictly the same, but it's just a simile...

Groxx 17y ago

It's not the article writer in particular, the article is basically fine in other respects, it's people in general. I see far more people using "osmosis" more often than "diffusion", despite almost never using it correctly. For example, those "Learning through osmosis" signs in libraries, articles, shirts, etc. absolutely abound. It clearly isn't working if you think that's osmosis. Or there are tons of services with quotes like this: http://www.languagetutoring.co.uk/LearningThroughOsmosis.html http://www.languagetutoring.co.uk/LearningThroughOsmosis.htm... Evidently they aren't tutoring science. Osmosis vs diffusion is not difficult to understand. It just seems people use it to sound smarter, and thus fail miserably 99% of the time.

glhaynes 17y ago
"Osmosis vs diffusion is not difficult to understand. It just seems people use it to sound smarter, and thus fail miserably 99% of the time." They fail 99% of the time with you, but if the vast majority of the people don't know the difference (as you said they don't), then the misusers aren't failing with the vast majority of listeners. :)
- Groxx 17y ago
  Incorrect statements are incorrect, whether or not anyone's around to hear the tree fall in the forest. I'll accept ramchip's explanation through simile, but quite literally that's the first time I've heard it (I may live under a rock in that, though). Are you then implying that anything that the majority believes - heck, lets make it 99% - is true, and should be accepted? Lets put it in geek-friendly terms, dating it back a number of years, so it strikes a chord with yc users: "Windows is the only operating system."
  - glhaynes 17y ago
    I was replying to your statement: "It just seems people use it to sound smarter, and thus fail miserably 99% of the time." I'm saying they fail to sound smarter with you but perhaps succeed in sounding smarter [not at being right] with the vast majority.
ramchip 17y ago
I wouldn't say "learning through osmosis" is necessarily wrong. Knowledge is like water. Throw a human in an environment with concentrated knowledge and he will absorb some. Of course, this isn't strictly the same, but it's just a simile...