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I just read that, and I love it. HN has introduced me to named conventions that I have been loving: Betteridge's law, Hitchen's razor, and now the Gell-Mann Amn

by wpasc 9y ago

I just read that, and I love it. HN has introduced me to named conventions that I have been loving: Betteridge's law, Hitchen's razor, and now the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect

Erlangolem 9y ago
You know Hanlon’s Razor and Heinlein’s Razor? Then there’s Finagle’s law (well known) and my favorite correlary, O’Toole’s: “The Perversity of the universe tends towards a maximum.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor http://muchow.dk/ttrttc/?p=565 http://muchow.dk/ttrttc/?p=565 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finagle%27s_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finagle%27s_law
rdruxn 9y ago
Betteridge’s law of headlines is one name for an adage that states: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." My personal favorite is Poe’s Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law?wprov=sfti1
- Bartweiss 9y ago
  It seems like Betteridge's Law has been catching on among the better sort of journalist. The NYT recently ran "Is Loneliness a Health Epidemic?", and I shook my head in anticipation of another article wildly overselling a weak claim. Instead, it was a measured piece cataloging excess hype on the topic and problems with commonly-cited loneliness studies. The author eventually arrived at "loneliness is a real concern, but not an epidemic". Which is all tangential, but it's great to finally see a journalist write a yes/no headline and actually notice that the answer is 'no'. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/opinion/sunday/loneliness-health.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/opinion/sunday/loneliness...
arthurjj 9y ago
Learning the proper names for these concepts has been a huge benefit of reading HN. I've been collecting them for the past few years and now have enough for a bingo card.
- Swquenzer 9y ago
  Absolutely agree. Does anyone have a compiled list of these types of concepts?
  - arthurjj 9y ago
    My list in reverse chronological order: baumol's cost disease, Chesterton's fence, Berkson's paradox, goodhart's law/Campbell's law, Gell-Mann Amnesia affect, Ship of Theseus, The Zeigarnik effect, Conway's law, selection bias heffindal index, Betteridge's law of head lines, survivorship bias, bayes theorem black swan, Dunbar number, Anscombe's quartet, false positive/false negative, fundamental attribution bias, type 1 type 2 thinking, grok, simpson's paradox, Hawthorne effect, dunning kruger, Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, flynn effect, Moving the overton window,
    - nikanj 9y ago
      Sturgeon’s law
    - glitcher 9y ago
      cobra effect, bikeshedding
    - thanatropism 9y ago
      Since you're keeping a list: it's "Herfindahl".
      - arthurjj 9y ago
        That's what I get for just copy pasting a personal note. Thanks for the fix.
  - positr0n 9y ago
    Most of the concepts HN members love to use to sound well educated while arguing on the internet are in this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
sushisource 9y ago
I sort of have the opposite reaction. These days it seems like people are so eager to trot out one of these phrases with a "look-how-informed-I-am" attitude, whether or not it's genuinely applicable. If I'm talking about the "Gell-Mann Amnesia effect" in daily conversation, I'm just gonna describe it like Crichton does in the quote, since naming it properly is going to result in having to explain it anyways, and the whole thing just comes across as being a bit self-important.

by wpasc 9y ago

I just read that, and I love it. HN has introduced me to named conventions that I have been loving: Betteridge's law, Hitchen's razor, and now the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect

Erlangolem 9y ago

You know Hanlon’s Razor and Heinlein’s Razor? Then there’s Finagle’s law (well known) and my favorite correlary, O’Toole’s: “The Perversity of the universe tends towards a maximum.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor http://muchow.dk/ttrttc/?p=565 http://muchow.dk/ttrttc/?p=565 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finagle%27s_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finagle%27s_law

rdruxn 9y ago

Betteridge’s law of headlines is one name for an adage that states: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." My personal favorite is Poe’s Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law?wprov=sfti1

Bartweiss 9y ago
It seems like Betteridge's Law has been catching on among the better sort of journalist. The NYT recently ran "Is Loneliness a Health Epidemic?", and I shook my head in anticipation of another article wildly overselling a weak claim. Instead, it was a measured piece cataloging excess hype on the topic and problems with commonly-cited loneliness studies. The author eventually arrived at "loneliness is a real concern, but not an epidemic". Which is all tangential, but it's great to finally see a journalist write a yes/no headline and actually notice that the answer is 'no'. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/opinion/sunday/loneliness-health.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/opinion/sunday/loneliness...

arthurjj 9y ago

Learning the proper names for these concepts has been a huge benefit of reading HN. I've been collecting them for the past few years and now have enough for a bingo card.

Swquenzer 9y ago
Absolutely agree. Does anyone have a compiled list of these types of concepts?
- arthurjj 9y ago
  My list in reverse chronological order: baumol's cost disease, Chesterton's fence, Berkson's paradox, goodhart's law/Campbell's law, Gell-Mann Amnesia affect, Ship of Theseus, The Zeigarnik effect, Conway's law, selection bias heffindal index, Betteridge's law of head lines, survivorship bias, bayes theorem black swan, Dunbar number, Anscombe's quartet, false positive/false negative, fundamental attribution bias, type 1 type 2 thinking, grok, simpson's paradox, Hawthorne effect, dunning kruger, Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, flynn effect, Moving the overton window,
  - nikanj 9y ago
    Sturgeon’s law
  - glitcher 9y ago
    cobra effect, bikeshedding
  - thanatropism 9y ago
    Since you're keeping a list: it's "Herfindahl".
    - arthurjj 9y ago
      That's what I get for just copy pasting a personal note. Thanks for the fix.
- positr0n 9y ago
  Most of the concepts HN members love to use to sound well educated while arguing on the internet are in this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

sushisource 9y ago

I sort of have the opposite reaction. These days it seems like people are so eager to trot out one of these phrases with a "look-how-informed-I-am" attitude, whether or not it's genuinely applicable. If I'm talking about the "Gell-Mann Amnesia effect" in daily conversation, I'm just gonna describe it like Crichton does in the quote, since naming it properly is going to result in having to explain it anyways, and the whole thing just comes across as being a bit self-important.