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The problem is that the a large chunk of the population aren't scientist so they don't understand the principles of the scientific method. And they aren't soft

The problem is that the a large chunk of the population aren't scientist so they don't understand the principles of the scientific method. And they aren't software developers, they don't have the mindset for it. And have you seen the way many people drive? There is a reason why the term "defensive driving" was coined.

GuB-42 5y ago
I think a good understanding of the scientific method, skepticism and fact checking should be taught in school as early as possible. The only thing students get is material presented as the truth that they have to faithfully accept. They are almost never taught how to deal with unreliable material. It made sense in the pre-internet age where finding information was the hard part, but now, it is the opposite: too much information. So we should focus more on how to filter it. We had a "general knowledge" class in college and it was an important part of it. We had to make essays and presentations about random subjects and we were judged by our ability to synthesize and verify information. Copy-pasting was actually encouraged, and long as it was from a good source and presented in a way that isn't misleading. The unfortunate thing is that we should have done exercises like that in primary school and not wait until college.
- mywittyname 5y ago
  > I think a good understanding of the scientific method, skepticism and fact checking should be taught in school as early as possible. It is taught in schools, and taught young. The people who understand the scientific method have been doing it every year since the sixth grade. They did science fair projects, etc. I just looked up modern educational standards, and kids are taught in grade six the scientific method and how to execute experiments using it. The problem is, lots of people suck at school. They didn't care about it and their parents didn't care about it, so they didn't retain anything. There are an awful lot of adults in society that couldn't pass a fifth grade math test.
  - tehwebguy 5y ago
    Yeah it was taught very strangely IMO in my schools. There was always such a goofy focus on the dumbest science fair projects that were probably just as likely to reach a completely wrong conclusion instead of relating the process to the real world and how we as a society continue to learn how the world works in any scenarios newer than Redi’s meat / maggots experiment from 1668!
berkes 5y ago
You don't need to be a scientist to acknowledge that knowledge evolves. You don't even need to follow a 'scientific method' for that. The ability to embrace uncertainty is hard to learn, but one that we all should strive for. One that should be praised and lauded. A politician, leader or CEO making a bad decision on a wrong premis, and publicly acknowledges the mistake (and learns from it), is now often end-of-career. This is toxic. Because such mistakes are a fact of life and the best teacher.
- topranks 5y ago
  100% agree. I think the inability to accept uncertainty in the world is, unfortunately, a big reason conspiracies thrive. Too frightening to grok that a random virus can emerge and maybe kill us all or at least turn society upside down? There’s a conspiracy that makes it an easy “good guys vs. bad guys” story for you.
ta988 5y ago
I know scientists and software developpers that believe all kind of weird stories (I even knew one that believed in perpetual motion).
wildmanx 5y ago
Enrico Weigelt whom Linus responded to is at least one of those things.

GuB-42 5y ago

I think a good understanding of the scientific method, skepticism and fact checking should be taught in school as early as possible. The only thing students get is material presented as the truth that they have to faithfully accept. They are almost never taught how to deal with unreliable material. It made sense in the pre-internet age where finding information was the hard part, but now, it is the opposite: too much information. So we should focus more on how to filter it. We had a "general knowledge" class in college and it was an important part of it. We had to make essays and presentations about random subjects and we were judged by our ability to synthesize and verify information. Copy-pasting was actually encouraged, and long as it was from a good source and presented in a way that isn't misleading. The unfortunate thing is that we should have done exercises like that in primary school and not wait until college.

mywittyname 5y ago
> I think a good understanding of the scientific method, skepticism and fact checking should be taught in school as early as possible. It is taught in schools, and taught young. The people who understand the scientific method have been doing it every year since the sixth grade. They did science fair projects, etc. I just looked up modern educational standards, and kids are taught in grade six the scientific method and how to execute experiments using it. The problem is, lots of people suck at school. They didn't care about it and their parents didn't care about it, so they didn't retain anything. There are an awful lot of adults in society that couldn't pass a fifth grade math test.
- tehwebguy 5y ago
  Yeah it was taught very strangely IMO in my schools. There was always such a goofy focus on the dumbest science fair projects that were probably just as likely to reach a completely wrong conclusion instead of relating the process to the real world and how we as a society continue to learn how the world works in any scenarios newer than Redi’s meat / maggots experiment from 1668!

berkes 5y ago

You don't need to be a scientist to acknowledge that knowledge evolves. You don't even need to follow a 'scientific method' for that. The ability to embrace uncertainty is hard to learn, but one that we all should strive for. One that should be praised and lauded. A politician, leader or CEO making a bad decision on a wrong premis, and publicly acknowledges the mistake (and learns from it), is now often end-of-career. This is toxic. Because such mistakes are a fact of life and the best teacher.

topranks 5y ago
100% agree. I think the inability to accept uncertainty in the world is, unfortunately, a big reason conspiracies thrive. Too frightening to grok that a random virus can emerge and maybe kill us all or at least turn society upside down? There’s a conspiracy that makes it an easy “good guys vs. bad guys” story for you.

ta988 5y ago

I know scientists and software developpers that believe all kind of weird stories (I even knew one that believed in perpetual motion).

wildmanx 5y ago

Enrico Weigelt whom Linus responded to is at least one of those things.