5 ms·

> Technically an infectious disease expert but I don’t particularly care what they have to say about Covid over a random person on the street either. I would a

> Technically an infectious disease expert but I don’t particularly care what they have to say about Covid over a random person on the street either. I would absolutely care more what they had to say over the rando, especially if they prefaced it with their level experience.

madrox 3y ago
Depends on the grade they got in that 3000 course, though I tend to agree with you
exmadscientist 3y ago
Yeah, uh, I wouldn't. There was a B- or C-list physics blogger a few years back whose graduate homework I used to grade. (I still remember this one, so that should tell you something.) He got very angry that I gave him zero credit for one particular question. But he: - did not use the standard/expected approach to this problem - did not explain what he was doing well enough for me to find him any partial credit (this is not easy!) - had a pile of impenetrable unnecessary very complex alien math that I wasn't going to try to cut through given that - his final answer was very, very wrong - in fact, it was wrong by 26 orders of magnitude - and he didn't have the skill to notice something was wrong (and, yes, I was lenient with students who noticed final answers were weird even if they couldn't/didn't fix it up) - also, he was a major asshole (no surprise given that he's complaining about this "indignity") who was - somehow still causing #MeToo problems in the 21st century despite being under 30 (seriously??) So if that's who gets held up as "authorities", even minor ones, forgive me if I don't listen too much. I'll choose who I trust.
- ajani 3y ago
  Which point would be enough by itself for you to discount him totally?
  - exmadscientist 3y ago
    Honestly? His mannerisms was all we really needed. He was not well liked in his year, and that takes some doing to achieve these days. The smug "how could I be wrong" when he was, well, 26 orders of magnitude wrong, is special even by entitled scientist standards.
    - ajani 3y ago
      Yes, how we behave usually trumps how true/false our ideas are.
      - exmadscientist 3y ago
        I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but I strongly believe, based on my experiences with really successful people, that being open to being wrong absolutely does count for a lot more than the current truth value of your ideas.
        ajani 3y ago
        Yes exactly. Behavior drives success. Not merit. Behavior is social. No sarcasm here, just acceptance of what is obvious.
- parker_mountain 3y ago
  I didn't say authority, and I didn't say trust blindly. I just said I'd trust someone with baseline qualifications over a random (presumably unqualified) person. lmao
  - exmadscientist 3y ago
    My point is that this person has baseline qualifications (Physics PhD!), was accepted by the media as "qualified" to be a blogger, and yet was still a complete god damned moron even in his own field of "specialization". It wouldn't have made such an impact except that he was getting paid to publicly write about this stuff, at the same time he was privately incompetent. A stellar example of the Gell-Mann Effect (aka Amnesia) if ever there was one.

madrox 3y ago

Depends on the grade they got in that 3000 course, though I tend to agree with you

exmadscientist 3y ago

Yeah, uh, I wouldn't. There was a B- or C-list physics blogger a few years back whose graduate homework I used to grade. (I still remember this one, so that should tell you something.) He got very angry that I gave him zero credit for one particular question. But he: - did not use the standard/expected approach to this problem - did not explain what he was doing well enough for me to find him any partial credit (this is not easy!) - had a pile of impenetrable unnecessary very complex alien math that I wasn't going to try to cut through given that - his final answer was very, very wrong - in fact, it was wrong by 26 orders of magnitude - and he didn't have the skill to notice something was wrong (and, yes, I was lenient with students who noticed final answers were weird even if they couldn't/didn't fix it up) - also, he was a major asshole (no surprise given that he's complaining about this "indignity") who was - somehow still causing #MeToo problems in the 21st century despite being under 30 (seriously??) So if that's who gets held up as "authorities", even minor ones, forgive me if I don't listen too much. I'll choose who I trust.

ajani 3y ago
Which point would be enough by itself for you to discount him totally?
- exmadscientist 3y ago
  Honestly? His mannerisms was all we really needed. He was not well liked in his year, and that takes some doing to achieve these days. The smug "how could I be wrong" when he was, well, 26 orders of magnitude wrong, is special even by entitled scientist standards.
  - ajani 3y ago
    Yes, how we behave usually trumps how true/false our ideas are.
    - exmadscientist 3y ago
      I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but I strongly believe, based on my experiences with really successful people, that being open to being wrong absolutely does count for a lot more than the current truth value of your ideas.
      - ajani 3y ago
        Yes exactly. Behavior drives success. Not merit. Behavior is social. No sarcasm here, just acceptance of what is obvious.
parker_mountain 3y ago
I didn't say authority, and I didn't say trust blindly. I just said I'd trust someone with baseline qualifications over a random (presumably unqualified) person. lmao
- exmadscientist 3y ago
  My point is that this person has baseline qualifications (Physics PhD!), was accepted by the media as "qualified" to be a blogger, and yet was still a complete god damned moron even in his own field of "specialization". It wouldn't have made such an impact except that he was getting paid to publicly write about this stuff, at the same time he was privately incompetent. A stellar example of the Gell-Mann Effect (aka Amnesia) if ever there was one.