3 ms·

OK, nice link, but was there something in particular you had in mind when you posted this, or did you just assume we'd figure it out (in which case I question i

by EwanG 15y ago

OK, nice link, but was there something in particular you had in mind when you posted this, or did you just assume we'd figure it out (in which case I question if you read the entry)...

olalonde 15y ago
Just thought it was interesting and that it might interest HN as well. There's nothing more to it! In fact, I'm currently going through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases and this one grabbed my attention as it is a bias technical people are particularly vulnerable to (we often hear about engineers' difficulties at clearly communicating with customers/management/investors). Also related: http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Inferential_distance http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Inferential_distance
gwern 15y ago
I think it's relevant to a lot of things posted here. For example, any programming language advocacy article based on non-objective engineering qualities like 'here's a benchmark'.
- chc 15y ago
  How does that relate to the phenomenon of forgetting that other people don't know as much as you when you're trying to convey information to them?
  - gwern 15y ago
    Well, it's evident to you that having all methods/functions/X be mockable/pure/Y is the best thing since sliced bread because your bacon has been saved so many times by testing/referential transparency/Z; but to someone who has not been saved?
coderdude 15y ago
You could ask that question to just about every person who submits a link to HN. Why do Wikipedia article submissions attract these comments? There are nearly 4 million articles in the English namespace alone. Is it not reasonable that some of them may occasionally pique a person's interest and make them want to spark some commentary around the topic? I've done it. To add a little to the discussion: Yihong Ding wrote an interesting article titled "The Curse of Knowledge and the Semantic Web" in 2007 for my (now very much on-hiatus) blog Semantic Focus: http://www.semanticfocus.com/blog/entry/title/the-curse-of-knowledge-and-the-semantic-web/ http://www.semanticfocus.com/blog/entry/title/the-curse-of-k...

by EwanG 15y ago

OK, nice link, but was there something in particular you had in mind when you posted this, or did you just assume we'd figure it out (in which case I question if you read the entry)...

olalonde 15y ago

Just thought it was interesting and that it might interest HN as well. There's nothing more to it! In fact, I'm currently going through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases and this one grabbed my attention as it is a bias technical people are particularly vulnerable to (we often hear about engineers' difficulties at clearly communicating with customers/management/investors). Also related: http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Inferential_distance http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Inferential_distance

gwern 15y ago

I think it's relevant to a lot of things posted here. For example, any programming language advocacy article based on non-objective engineering qualities like 'here's a benchmark'.

chc 15y ago
How does that relate to the phenomenon of forgetting that other people don't know as much as you when you're trying to convey information to them?
- gwern 15y ago
  Well, it's evident to you that having all methods/functions/X be mockable/pure/Y is the best thing since sliced bread because your bacon has been saved so many times by testing/referential transparency/Z; but to someone who has not been saved?

coderdude 15y ago

You could ask that question to just about every person who submits a link to HN. Why do Wikipedia article submissions attract these comments? There are nearly 4 million articles in the English namespace alone. Is it not reasonable that some of them may occasionally pique a person's interest and make them want to spark some commentary around the topic? I've done it. To add a little to the discussion: Yihong Ding wrote an interesting article titled "The Curse of Knowledge and the Semantic Web" in 2007 for my (now very much on-hiatus) blog Semantic Focus: http://www.semanticfocus.com/blog/entry/title/the-curse-of-knowledge-and-the-semantic-web/ http://www.semanticfocus.com/blog/entry/title/the-curse-of-k...