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This is the Gell-Mann amnesia effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#GellMannAmnesiaEffect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#GellMa

This is the Gell-Mann amnesia effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#GellMannAmnesiaEffect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#GellMannAmnes...

silisili 5y ago
Fascinating, thanks! This got me to thinking though...almost every news outlet flubs covering deeply technical things folks here would be familiar with, and we all have a laugh. But we get our news from them and generally believe it, so do we all suffer from it to some extent?
- chx 5y ago
  No, this effect is, to quote itself, baloney. The underlying presumption of it is every person working at a paper is equally wrong about the topic they write. However, most newspapers are focused on politics and so those might be better. I would not expect a good analysis on the Palestinian conflict from Linus Tech Tips nor a good analysis on the latest graphics cards from Foreign Affairs.
  - raxxorrax 5y ago
    The weird thing is that you could expect a comment on the Palestinian conflict from Linus Tech Tips...
  - AussieWog93 5y ago
    >I would not expect a good analysis on the Palestinian conflict from Linus Tech Tips I know you were just making an extreme comparison, but I genuinely think they'd do a good job of it if push came to shove. Linus and the people who work for him are beyond professional.
  - BrazzVuvuzela 5y ago
    > I would not expect a good analysis on the Palestinian conflict from Linus Tech Tips No, but such analysis would be informative when you stop to analyze just how persuasive he manages to sound when he's talking about something he obviously knows nothing about. His tone, cadence, body language.. it would reveal to you how good he is at mimicking the superficial characteristics of being an expert. If he's bad at those things when speaking outside his wheelhouse, that's a good thing! But if he's really good at seeming like an expert when you have good reason to think he isn't one, that's a huge warning sign that he might not actually be so proficient in the things you previously believed him to be good at.

This is the Gell-Mann amnesia effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#GellMannAmnesiaEffect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#GellMannAmnes...

silisili 5y ago

Fascinating, thanks! This got me to thinking though...almost every news outlet flubs covering deeply technical things folks here would be familiar with, and we all have a laugh. But we get our news from them and generally believe it, so do we all suffer from it to some extent?

chx 5y ago
No, this effect is, to quote itself, baloney. The underlying presumption of it is every person working at a paper is equally wrong about the topic they write. However, most newspapers are focused on politics and so those might be better. I would not expect a good analysis on the Palestinian conflict from Linus Tech Tips nor a good analysis on the latest graphics cards from Foreign Affairs.
- raxxorrax 5y ago
  The weird thing is that you could expect a comment on the Palestinian conflict from Linus Tech Tips...
- AussieWog93 5y ago
  >I would not expect a good analysis on the Palestinian conflict from Linus Tech Tips I know you were just making an extreme comparison, but I genuinely think they'd do a good job of it if push came to shove. Linus and the people who work for him are beyond professional.
- BrazzVuvuzela 5y ago
  > I would not expect a good analysis on the Palestinian conflict from Linus Tech Tips No, but such analysis would be informative when you stop to analyze just how persuasive he manages to sound when he's talking about something he obviously knows nothing about. His tone, cadence, body language.. it would reveal to you how good he is at mimicking the superficial characteristics of being an expert. If he's bad at those things when speaking outside his wheelhouse, that's a good thing! But if he's really good at seeming like an expert when you have good reason to think he isn't one, that's a huge warning sign that he might not actually be so proficient in the things you previously believed him to be good at.