4 ms·

"A substantial fraction of the world’s most brilliant, competent, and empathetic people ... spend their lives serving Marl" that is a logical fallacy because sm

by xkcd1963 3y ago

"A substantial fraction of the world’s most brilliant, competent, and empathetic people ... spend their lives serving Marl" that is a logical fallacy because smart people don't waste their time on something as useless as that.

gipp 3y ago
That's not what a logical fallacy is
- xkcd1963 3y ago
  "A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning that occurs when invalid arguments or irrelevant points are introduced without any evidence to support them." invalid argument => x people doing y where x is "brilliant" and y is "serving Marl". Serving Marl is not brilliant. It doesn't count to work for a FAANG company to be considered brilliant, at least by my standards and view on how time is well spend.
  - gipp 3y ago
    Yeah, that's cool and all, but a) a logical fallacy is a particular pattern of invalid argument, not just an argument that is invalid. So just on like a semantic level, an individual argument can't be a fallacy, though it can commit one. b) fallacies are invalid inferences by construction. You just don't agree with the premise in this case (and are also implicitly proposing a second premise that doing something not-brilliant means a person is not themselves brilliant) And most importantly c) whether or not working for a FAANG company is "brilliant" is entirely a question of your opinion.
    - xkcd1963 3y ago
      a) I googled my description. Does it really matter if you use a verb or an adjective to convey the message? b) One is brilliant when doing brilliant things, and stupid when doing stupid things. A chainsmoker stops being a smoker until he reaches for the next cigarette. c) yea I explicitly wrote "at least by my standards and view on how time is well spend"
skyyler 3y ago
Surely you understand the underlying message about perverse or mis-aligned incentive? Are you familiar with the fallacy fallacy?
- xkcd1963 3y ago
  Do you mean that the author meant it in a sarcastic way? My impression was that the author meant it in a literal way. You are saying I shouldn't describe the whole sentence as fallacy because in any case, part of it is true? I don't know that doesn't go well with writing sneering comments.

gipp 3y ago

That's not what a logical fallacy is

xkcd1963 3y ago
"A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning that occurs when invalid arguments or irrelevant points are introduced without any evidence to support them." invalid argument => x people doing y where x is "brilliant" and y is "serving Marl". Serving Marl is not brilliant. It doesn't count to work for a FAANG company to be considered brilliant, at least by my standards and view on how time is well spend.
- gipp 3y ago
  Yeah, that's cool and all, but a) a logical fallacy is a particular pattern of invalid argument, not just an argument that is invalid. So just on like a semantic level, an individual argument can't be a fallacy, though it can commit one. b) fallacies are invalid inferences by construction. You just don't agree with the premise in this case (and are also implicitly proposing a second premise that doing something not-brilliant means a person is not themselves brilliant) And most importantly c) whether or not working for a FAANG company is "brilliant" is entirely a question of your opinion.
  - xkcd1963 3y ago
    a) I googled my description. Does it really matter if you use a verb or an adjective to convey the message? b) One is brilliant when doing brilliant things, and stupid when doing stupid things. A chainsmoker stops being a smoker until he reaches for the next cigarette. c) yea I explicitly wrote "at least by my standards and view on how time is well spend"

skyyler 3y ago

Surely you understand the underlying message about perverse or mis-aligned incentive? Are you familiar with the fallacy fallacy?

xkcd1963 3y ago
Do you mean that the author meant it in a sarcastic way? My impression was that the author meant it in a literal way. You are saying I shouldn't describe the whole sentence as fallacy because in any case, part of it is true? I don't know that doesn't go well with writing sneering comments.