4 ms·

Its one thing to make an honest mistake, its another thing to make half-baked conjectures about entire swaths of research fields where people have made careers

Its one thing to make an honest mistake, its another thing to make half-baked conjectures about entire swaths of research fields where people have made careers and wrote full-baked PhD thesis's. Its frankly disrespectful to everyone's time when someone who hasn't even tried to be reasonably informed makes up some random explanation for everything and presents it as if their "insight" is worth anything whatsoever. My rudeness is on par and in response to rudeness. Failing to make bullshit feel unwelcome in the most uncertain terms is nothing more than an invitation for more bullshit.

eyelidlessness 4y ago
My entire point was that you’ll make more bullshit unwelcome, if you know better, by kindly inviting more well meaning bullshitters to reconsider their bullshit than by clobbering them. It’s not quite win flies with honey but it’s a narrower application of the same principle.
- wrycoder 4y ago
  I see no need to tolerate literally ignorant rambling at the expense of informed commentary. If a site keeps doing that, competent people go elsewhere. Why is that post the top comment on an interesting paper from MIT?
  - eyelidlessness 4y ago
    I see no need to tolerate ignorant non sequiturs but I’ll be kind in the spirit of my point and ask that you re-read my prior comments and hopefully understand that’s not what I’m suggesting. Being inflexibly and uniformly critical of all ignorance also drives people off. And the direct subject to a reply isn’t always the most important audience. Sometimes you’re persuading people who are passively reading along. If that sounds absurd in this scenario, consider the number of times a gentler rebuttal in a discussion has given you pause to reconsider some foolish idea you hadn’t expressed. If you can’t think of one, you’re either an outlier genius or maybe overconfident and overcompensating. Either way, most people aren’t dissuaded of their ignorance by being chastised for it. Speaking as someone who’s lost important friends learning that the hard way.
    - wrycoder 4y ago
      You must be young.
      - eyelidlessness 4y ago
        Okay I’m genuinely curious. Younger than…?

eyelidlessness 4y ago

My entire point was that you’ll make more bullshit unwelcome, if you know better, by kindly inviting more well meaning bullshitters to reconsider their bullshit than by clobbering them. It’s not quite win flies with honey but it’s a narrower application of the same principle.

wrycoder 4y ago
I see no need to tolerate literally ignorant rambling at the expense of informed commentary. If a site keeps doing that, competent people go elsewhere. Why is that post the top comment on an interesting paper from MIT?
- eyelidlessness 4y ago
  I see no need to tolerate ignorant non sequiturs but I’ll be kind in the spirit of my point and ask that you re-read my prior comments and hopefully understand that’s not what I’m suggesting. Being inflexibly and uniformly critical of all ignorance also drives people off. And the direct subject to a reply isn’t always the most important audience. Sometimes you’re persuading people who are passively reading along. If that sounds absurd in this scenario, consider the number of times a gentler rebuttal in a discussion has given you pause to reconsider some foolish idea you hadn’t expressed. If you can’t think of one, you’re either an outlier genius or maybe overconfident and overcompensating. Either way, most people aren’t dissuaded of their ignorance by being chastised for it. Speaking as someone who’s lost important friends learning that the hard way.
  - wrycoder 4y ago
    You must be young.
    - eyelidlessness 4y ago
      Okay I’m genuinely curious. Younger than…?