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The existence of some very smart KFC workers doesn't mean that on average McDonald's workers are as intelligent as professors.

Florin_Andrei 10y ago
Well, you seem to subscribe to the mindset that says - as long as you're very intelligent and highly educated, you're probably right on any arbitrary topic, and your opinions trump those of less intelligent and/or less educated people regardless of the relative degrees of experience involved on that topic. Particularly if combined with a narrow range of life experiences, or a young age, or both, it's a difficult view to change. I've worked at some of the biggest names in the tech industry. I've also literally beaten iron with a hammer in a dirty factory. I've lived in some of the most advanced democracies in the world. I've also lived under true-blue communist dictatorship. I've seen the life of some pretty fancy, posh suburbs in the Silicon Valley. I've also seen the life of the traditional Eastern Bloc peasant. I know it's hard to believe, but with a broad experience comes the understanding that intelligence and scholarly education alone don't automatically provide all answers, nor do they grant you the Always Right card. No matter how smart or polished you are, if you don't walk into the humble folks' shoes for a while, your understanding of what their lives truly are will be necessarily incomplete and warped. I'm not trying to convince you of anything. A neural network that wasn't provided with the necessary training set will not "see" the right answers no matter what. All I want to do is plant the seed of "what if". Perhaps it will grow into a broader understanding, later. But that can only come with experience.
- throw_away_777 10y ago
  For an argument that is espousing the benefits of empathy, your condescending tone is very off-putting. You also use a straw-man argument - there is a difference between trusting professors more than lay people and believing that scholarly education grants you "the Always Right card". I also don't believe that "as long as you're very intelligent and highly educated, you're probably right on any arbitrary topic, and your opinions trump those of less intelligent and/or less educated people regardless of the relative degrees of experience involved on that topic". That is an obvious straw man. At the same time, I don't think working at Wendy's somehow constitutes the necessary experience to understand humanity that working as a professor doesn't provide. Would a Wendy's employee be better able to cook a hamburger? Yes, but if I want economic advice on how to improve the lives of poor people I'm still going to trust an economist who studies the issues over a Wendy's employee. Would working a year as a Wendy's employee really help the economist better understand the economy? The fundamental point of the article - that scientists don't understand society because they are somehow different and privileged - is wrong at best and dangerously anti-intellectual at worst.

Florin_Andrei 10y ago

Well, you seem to subscribe to the mindset that says - as long as you're very intelligent and highly educated, you're probably right on any arbitrary topic, and your opinions trump those of less intelligent and/or less educated people regardless of the relative degrees of experience involved on that topic. Particularly if combined with a narrow range of life experiences, or a young age, or both, it's a difficult view to change. I've worked at some of the biggest names in the tech industry. I've also literally beaten iron with a hammer in a dirty factory. I've lived in some of the most advanced democracies in the world. I've also lived under true-blue communist dictatorship. I've seen the life of some pretty fancy, posh suburbs in the Silicon Valley. I've also seen the life of the traditional Eastern Bloc peasant. I know it's hard to believe, but with a broad experience comes the understanding that intelligence and scholarly education alone don't automatically provide all answers, nor do they grant you the Always Right card. No matter how smart or polished you are, if you don't walk into the humble folks' shoes for a while, your understanding of what their lives truly are will be necessarily incomplete and warped. I'm not trying to convince you of anything. A neural network that wasn't provided with the necessary training set will not "see" the right answers no matter what. All I want to do is plant the seed of "what if". Perhaps it will grow into a broader understanding, later. But that can only come with experience.

throw_away_777 10y ago
For an argument that is espousing the benefits of empathy, your condescending tone is very off-putting. You also use a straw-man argument - there is a difference between trusting professors more than lay people and believing that scholarly education grants you "the Always Right card". I also don't believe that "as long as you're very intelligent and highly educated, you're probably right on any arbitrary topic, and your opinions trump those of less intelligent and/or less educated people regardless of the relative degrees of experience involved on that topic". That is an obvious straw man. At the same time, I don't think working at Wendy's somehow constitutes the necessary experience to understand humanity that working as a professor doesn't provide. Would a Wendy's employee be better able to cook a hamburger? Yes, but if I want economic advice on how to improve the lives of poor people I'm still going to trust an economist who studies the issues over a Wendy's employee. Would working a year as a Wendy's employee really help the economist better understand the economy? The fundamental point of the article - that scientists don't understand society because they are somehow different and privileged - is wrong at best and dangerously anti-intellectual at worst.