3 ms·
Ok let’s get down to it. Are you prominent or especially knowledgeable in the specific area discussed? The first irony to avoid here is that you might not be a
by WhitneyLand 9y ago
Ok let’s get down to it. Are you prominent or especially knowledgeable in the specific area discussed? The first irony to avoid here is that you might not be an expert because it’s possible to do advanced work in your areas that’s quite removed from this. That’s true for all research, it’s endlessly splintered into sub fields. I forget who is commonly said to be the last person to know most all of science, was it Newton?
Secondly, even when people are wrong here they don’t seem any more intransigent or arrogant on average. The point is I would assume they are acting in good faith, however I can’t be sure because you criticize people without specific citations. You use citations in your papers I assume?
Let me change course and try and make this as productive as possible by looking at your comments in the most positive light. You are eminent in the field and somehow found yourself reading terribly uninformed assertively stated comments.
What a lost opportunity to correct and inform. What you could say in only a matter of minutes, could seem invaluable to those passionately interested in the subject. I’m sure it would be appreciated, raise the quality of discourse, and may help spread a more informed and accurate lay perspective of the field.
What would Susskind do? If he were here reading comments on a black hole article (for a reason I can’t imagine)? I don’t know him personally but whenever I listen to him lecture I’m always impressed by how willing he seems to share his genius with people interested in learning.
- Density 9y agoI'm seconding the point about educating hn readers. If you're an expert in the area please correct any misconceptions you see. It might feel like a losing battle, but it's not. HN readers aren't sheep. We're more than capable of skimming past light-on-fact comment to get to the good ones.