4 ms·

I mean, you can't be sure they're lying. Odds are nonzero that 38 ppl were looking at that flight

tmh88j 7y ago
>I mean, you can't be sure they're lying. Odds are nonzero that 38 ppl were looking at that flight I suggest you click on the link, they absolutely are lying. They're using JS to generate a random number between 28 and 45. If there happens to be 38 people looking at that flight it's entirely coincidental.
- vgaldikas 7y ago
  You don't do sarcasm, do you
runarberg 7y ago
It is lying. They claim something that they have no evidence for. Whether the number truly is 38 at that moment is irrelevant in this case. Because if the number was 0, 42, or 1437 they still would have made the claim that 38 were looking at that flight.
- JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago
  In any negotiation, nobody should take (at face value) the reported interest of the other party. A real estate agent could say a dozen people dropped by the home earlier today. You'd be foolish to believe it. You'd be foolish to believe Booking.com saying there's 1 room left, or the number of people currently looking at a webpage.
  - ARandomerDude 7y ago
    Why shift the blame to the victim? Is "you shouldn't lie" really so controversial?
    - JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago
      It isn't controversial. But we should teach people to think independently, rather than devaluing education and critical thinking. Why not have both? Businesses should have integrity and consumers should be able to apply a basic level of critical thinking. I don't think I placed blame on the victim, either. I'm merely pointing out people should think critically of what they read, because that has a lot of valuable applications in life, beyond outside of protecting yourself from people who will lie to you.
      - TeMPOraL 7y ago
        I think we should also teach people some epistemological self-defense. People caught on lying should be punished, hard. Lying to others is an inherently hostile act.
        colejohnson66 7y ago
        Deceptive advertising is already under the FTC’s purview
        TeMPOraL 7y ago
        That's good, but I'm talking about lying outside of deceptive advertising. There's plenty of lying going on in sales&marketing that doesn't reach the level of being illegal. Puffery comes to mind.
jchw 7y ago
Sure, randomly picking a number is bound to land on the right answer eventually, but the website is still lying because it is telling you 38 even though it doesn’t actually know that. It is assuring you something that it provably doesn’t know. That’s a lie, correct or incorrect.

>I mean, you can't be sure they're lying. Odds are nonzero that 38 ppl were looking at that flight I suggest you click on the link, they absolutely are lying. They're using JS to generate a random number between 28 and 45. If there happens to be 38 people looking at that flight it's entirely coincidental.

vgaldikas 7y ago
You don't do sarcasm, do you

runarberg 7y ago

It is lying. They claim something that they have no evidence for. Whether the number truly is 38 at that moment is irrelevant in this case. Because if the number was 0, 42, or 1437 they still would have made the claim that 38 were looking at that flight.

JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago
In any negotiation, nobody should take (at face value) the reported interest of the other party. A real estate agent could say a dozen people dropped by the home earlier today. You'd be foolish to believe it. You'd be foolish to believe Booking.com saying there's 1 room left, or the number of people currently looking at a webpage.
- ARandomerDude 7y ago
  Why shift the blame to the victim? Is "you shouldn't lie" really so controversial?
  - JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago
    It isn't controversial. But we should teach people to think independently, rather than devaluing education and critical thinking. Why not have both? Businesses should have integrity and consumers should be able to apply a basic level of critical thinking. I don't think I placed blame on the victim, either. I'm merely pointing out people should think critically of what they read, because that has a lot of valuable applications in life, beyond outside of protecting yourself from people who will lie to you.
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      I think we should also teach people some epistemological self-defense. People caught on lying should be punished, hard. Lying to others is an inherently hostile act.
      - colejohnson66 7y ago
        Deceptive advertising is already under the FTC’s purview
        TeMPOraL 7y ago
        That's good, but I'm talking about lying outside of deceptive advertising. There's plenty of lying going on in sales&marketing that doesn't reach the level of being illegal. Puffery comes to mind.

jchw 7y ago

Sure, randomly picking a number is bound to land on the right answer eventually, but the website is still lying because it is telling you 38 even though it doesn’t actually know that. It is assuring you something that it provably doesn’t know. That’s a lie, correct or incorrect.