3 ms·

"Single most important", even if technically true, can also be misleading.

by mistermann 6y ago

maverickJ 6y ago
Yup. I have a problem with “single most important”
- kordlessagain 6y ago
  Getting hung up on words is a thing with some people. Not everything can be put into words and have it stick for all time. Things change. Dogma emerges. Impermanence happens.
  - klyrs 6y ago
    "Is the single most important thing" is plainly hyperbole. For instance, that statement cannot be unconditional. If a bus is barreling towards you, the single most important thing is to get out of the way of that bus. No time to measure it, measure its velocity, calculate the rate at which you need to move. The single most important thing is to get moving now. As a mathematician, I read that headline and say "what are your axioms?" And that's a quantitative response to that qualitative headline, so no apologies.
    - kordlessagain 6y ago
      If one is thrown in front of a bus, one is probably not going to use any words to remove themselves from the path of the bus. Hyperbole is all about words, but the author was speaking about what is the single most important thing to thinking, which means their thinking, not yours or mine. Pointing out that someone else is aimlessly pointing out "errors" gets downvotes, apparently. That would be a hypothesis.
lukifer 6y ago
Curiously "single most important" is a qualitative value statement, masquerading as a quantitative statement: it implies a rank-ordering of Most Important Things. But there are no measurable, quantifiable units attached to such a list, nor could there be. It's probably not fair to indict too strongly on this phrase; people use exaggerated language all the time ("X is the best" to mean "X is very very good"), and so reading it as "thinking quantitatively is very very important" seems appropriate. Nonetheless, as valuable as quantitative thinking is, it has (immeasurable) diminishing returns. It can never be more than a tool to realize our qualitative human values. Somewhere we have to "cash out" the numbers into things we care about, which don't have numbers attached: human dignity; individual autonomy; the look of joy in a child's eyes; the emotional security of family and friends; etc.
- mistermann 6y ago
  For sure however... > It's probably not fair to indict too strongly on this phrase; people use exaggerated language all the time ("X is the best" to mean "X is very very good"), and so reading it as "thinking quantitatively is very very important" seems appropriate. To me, the point isn't about pedantic enforcement of grammar and linguistics, but more so about to underlying thinking that this use of language suggests. To what extent does lazy/imprecise/presumptive/forgiving communication and thinking permeate the systems that implement our incredibly technically advanced advanced societies, where it is simultaneously common to find people who smell like pee sleeping on the sidewalk, and hardly anyone bats an eye, or finds the situation even remotely curious? This comment isn't directed at you, it's just more of an esoteric observation.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

"Single most important", even if technically true, can also be misleading.

maverickJ 6y ago

Yup. I have a problem with “single most important”

kordlessagain 6y ago
Getting hung up on words is a thing with some people. Not everything can be put into words and have it stick for all time. Things change. Dogma emerges. Impermanence happens.
- klyrs 6y ago
  "Is the single most important thing" is plainly hyperbole. For instance, that statement cannot be unconditional. If a bus is barreling towards you, the single most important thing is to get out of the way of that bus. No time to measure it, measure its velocity, calculate the rate at which you need to move. The single most important thing is to get moving now. As a mathematician, I read that headline and say "what are your axioms?" And that's a quantitative response to that qualitative headline, so no apologies.
  - kordlessagain 6y ago
    If one is thrown in front of a bus, one is probably not going to use any words to remove themselves from the path of the bus. Hyperbole is all about words, but the author was speaking about what is the single most important thing to thinking, which means their thinking, not yours or mine. Pointing out that someone else is aimlessly pointing out "errors" gets downvotes, apparently. That would be a hypothesis.

lukifer 6y ago

Curiously "single most important" is a qualitative value statement, masquerading as a quantitative statement: it implies a rank-ordering of Most Important Things. But there are no measurable, quantifiable units attached to such a list, nor could there be. It's probably not fair to indict too strongly on this phrase; people use exaggerated language all the time ("X is the best" to mean "X is very very good"), and so reading it as "thinking quantitatively is very very important" seems appropriate. Nonetheless, as valuable as quantitative thinking is, it has (immeasurable) diminishing returns. It can never be more than a tool to realize our qualitative human values. Somewhere we have to "cash out" the numbers into things we care about, which don't have numbers attached: human dignity; individual autonomy; the look of joy in a child's eyes; the emotional security of family and friends; etc.

mistermann 6y ago
For sure however... > It's probably not fair to indict too strongly on this phrase; people use exaggerated language all the time ("X is the best" to mean "X is very very good"), and so reading it as "thinking quantitatively is very very important" seems appropriate. To me, the point isn't about pedantic enforcement of grammar and linguistics, but more so about to underlying thinking that this use of language suggests. To what extent does lazy/imprecise/presumptive/forgiving communication and thinking permeate the systems that implement our incredibly technically advanced advanced societies, where it is simultaneously common to find people who smell like pee sleeping on the sidewalk, and hardly anyone bats an eye, or finds the situation even remotely curious? This comment isn't directed at you, it's just more of an esoteric observation.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]