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If you were going to say they seem like a scientist, it would have been better to go with "I'm guessing you're a scientist or in a science field?" A similar ki

If you were going to say they seem like a scientist, it would have been better to go with "I'm guessing you're a scientist or in a science field?" A similar kind of way of speaking would be something like "I'm guessing you never went to college". This would be similar to calling someone an idiot. Or "you program like someone that's never taken a class in it". These are difficult to take positively because nearly every connotation implies that they're somehow lacking something. Rather than speaking about how someone is lacking, it's wiser to speak about how what they're doing is a positive. "You didn't go to college, did you?" is negative; but, "Are you self-taught?" is a positive. Self-taught implies a sort of stick-to-it-iveness and discipline, where as not going to college, again, implies a failing on that person. Does this make sense?

godelski 6y ago
I appreciate the defense but you probably shouldn't argue with them. I'm guessing they are trolling or egocentric (not a meaningful difference). I mean they are supposing that one cannot be both a scientist and a philosopher at the same time, which illustrates quite a naive viewpoint of what science actually is (there's a reason physics was called natural philosophy). Such a notion is a bit ludicrous and so I didn't even want to give it merit by acknowledging the insanity of it. And I mean come on, they said "machine learning is just bio-mimicry big whoop" and I responded "yeah, that's kinda the point"[0] because clearly they don't understand the bio-inspiration of ML and its history, which is a bit obtuse considering we call them "neural networks." And that's without even looking at things like dropout (inspired by sex), genetic programming (sex again), or exploration/exploitation strategies (which are directly related to play). Just let them ride their imaginary high horse. But I do have to give them props for the strangest insult I've gotten all year. [0] It would be very naive to actually say that ML is bio-mimicry. It has a lot of bio-inspiration but does things vastly differently than what biology actually does. But one cannot ignore the inspiration despite the implementation being vastly different.
- t-writescode 6y ago
  I've met plenty of people that: * English is their second or third language * don't perceive statements the way others do for a variety of reasons I'm treating it as though this situation is one or the other; but, yes, you're right, I've put enough energy into it. Hope you're getting some free time over Christmas - if you've worked a lot; or get that break and a new job! - if you've been in trouble lately

godelski 6y ago

I appreciate the defense but you probably shouldn't argue with them. I'm guessing they are trolling or egocentric (not a meaningful difference). I mean they are supposing that one cannot be both a scientist and a philosopher at the same time, which illustrates quite a naive viewpoint of what science actually is (there's a reason physics was called natural philosophy). Such a notion is a bit ludicrous and so I didn't even want to give it merit by acknowledging the insanity of it. And I mean come on, they said "machine learning is just bio-mimicry big whoop" and I responded "yeah, that's kinda the point"[0] because clearly they don't understand the bio-inspiration of ML and its history, which is a bit obtuse considering we call them "neural networks." And that's without even looking at things like dropout (inspired by sex), genetic programming (sex again), or exploration/exploitation strategies (which are directly related to play). Just let them ride their imaginary high horse. But I do have to give them props for the strangest insult I've gotten all year. [0] It would be very naive to actually say that ML is bio-mimicry. It has a lot of bio-inspiration but does things vastly differently than what biology actually does. But one cannot ignore the inspiration despite the implementation being vastly different.

t-writescode 6y ago
I've met plenty of people that: * English is their second or third language * don't perceive statements the way others do for a variety of reasons I'm treating it as though this situation is one or the other; but, yes, you're right, I've put enough energy into it. Hope you're getting some free time over Christmas - if you've worked a lot; or get that break and a new job! - if you've been in trouble lately