7 ms·

Are you sure this isn’t just the Gell-Mann effect? It sounds like you’re probably better informed about this than the typical person and might be expecting a lo

Are you sure this isn’t just the Gell-Mann effect? It sounds like you’re probably better informed about this than the typical person and might be expecting a lot more detail than a newspaper would be endeavoring to try to convey. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann_amnesia_effect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann_amnesia_effect

jagged-chisel 1y ago
I think the point is that the article is conveying too much of the wrong kind of details.
- kragen 1y ago
  vlovich123 may be correct that I am giving the BBC too much credit in general. But I don't think I'm especially well-informed; I'd never heard of methylglyoxal before looking this up in Wikipedia. I agree that its focus is somewhat wrong. I don't think that the backgrounder on the importance of food preservation is completely without value. It's just that it's already fairly well known that food rots and why. My larger objection, though, is that there are important, well-established reasons for honey to be far less perishable than other substances of similar water activity and pH, and the article does not mention them even briefly. I think it's fine to have lots of the wrong kind of details, but it's not fine to omit the right ones.
  - bookofjoe 1y ago
    >I think it's fine to have lots of the wrong kind of details, but it's not fine to omit the right ones. Who decides which are "wrong" and which are "right?"
    - kragen 1y ago
      The title of the article, "The chemical secrets that help keep honey fresh for so long," seems like a good criterion in this case.
positr0n 1y ago
Isn’t the entire point of the Gell Man amnesia effect that all news is low quality, you just only realize it for topics you know a lot about? And OP evidently knows a lot about honey :)
- kragen 1y ago
  I had a vague memory that it had some kind of antibacterial properties, but no, I don't know a lot about honey; I just went and looked it up in Wikipedia.
- vlovich123 1y ago
  Sure although I interpret it a little bit differently. All news is low quality but raises the overall bar of ignorance for people not familiar with the topic. So experts get no value from them on topics they are familiar while improving their level of baseline ignorance on topics they aren't.
  - kragen 1y ago
    I think reading this article could result in acquiring the misconception that honey stays fresh for centuries only because it has low water activity and low pH, worsening your level of baseline ignorance and leading you to potentially significant false conclusions; for example, the conclusion that honey bandages are useless or harmful. I think that's the usual problem that Gell–Mann amnesia conceals: news that is so low quality that it actively makes you stupider when you read it.

jagged-chisel 1y ago

I think the point is that the article is conveying too much of the wrong kind of details.

kragen 1y ago
vlovich123 may be correct that I am giving the BBC too much credit in general. But I don't think I'm especially well-informed; I'd never heard of methylglyoxal before looking this up in Wikipedia. I agree that its focus is somewhat wrong. I don't think that the backgrounder on the importance of food preservation is completely without value. It's just that it's already fairly well known that food rots and why. My larger objection, though, is that there are important, well-established reasons for honey to be far less perishable than other substances of similar water activity and pH, and the article does not mention them even briefly. I think it's fine to have lots of the wrong kind of details, but it's not fine to omit the right ones.
- bookofjoe 1y ago
  >I think it's fine to have lots of the wrong kind of details, but it's not fine to omit the right ones. Who decides which are "wrong" and which are "right?"
  - kragen 1y ago
    The title of the article, "The chemical secrets that help keep honey fresh for so long," seems like a good criterion in this case.

positr0n 1y ago

Isn’t the entire point of the Gell Man amnesia effect that all news is low quality, you just only realize it for topics you know a lot about? And OP evidently knows a lot about honey :)

kragen 1y ago
I had a vague memory that it had some kind of antibacterial properties, but no, I don't know a lot about honey; I just went and looked it up in Wikipedia.
vlovich123 1y ago
Sure although I interpret it a little bit differently. All news is low quality but raises the overall bar of ignorance for people not familiar with the topic. So experts get no value from them on topics they are familiar while improving their level of baseline ignorance on topics they aren't.
- kragen 1y ago
  I think reading this article could result in acquiring the misconception that honey stays fresh for centuries only because it has low water activity and low pH, worsening your level of baseline ignorance and leading you to potentially significant false conclusions; for example, the conclusion that honey bandages are useless or harmful. I think that's the usual problem that Gell–Mann amnesia conceals: news that is so low quality that it actively makes you stupider when you read it.