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I am not arguing against the facts expressed in the piece. This is not an area in which I have any expertise. However, I am a bit uncomfortable with the pithy
by ChrisMarshallNY 6mo ago
I am not arguing against the facts expressed in the piece. This is not an area in which I have any expertise.
However, I am a bit uncomfortable with the pithy language used. It's possible (likely, even), that the fired editors deserve the pithiness, but it's still a bit weird to read that kind of prose, in a scientific context.
- mklyachman 6mo agoThis is an investigative substack, not a piece of academic literature. God forbid the author home some (admittedly, strong) opinions and speaks negatively about fraudsters.
- mmooss 6mo ago> This is an investigative substack, not a piece of academic literature. Professional news is usually written without expressing judgement and minimizing opinion. > fraudsters It's an allegation. The author only hurts themself: My impression is that they don't believet the fundamentals of truth and humanity: they are certainly partially wrong, could be very wrong, will never know the complete truth, and their judgment of others is too flawed to rely on. Also it seems they are acting more on their emotions and less on fact and reason.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- _will_ 6mo agoMaybe I'm just naive or dense, but I'm not seeing language I'd be concerned about in the article? Help me get calibrated, is there something in particular that bothers you? or just a general vibe?
- ajcp 6mo ago> Despite working at a terrible school Literally zero need for that; none. And it's that kind of language that calls into question the authors motives. I went from "Excellent reporting here" to "This guy is emotional and not a reliable source of information" in 6 words.
- dkga 6mo agoUnfortunately I had the same impression. Or the comment on Anna Du's looks. Otherwise great reporting that, even in an informal substack piece, lose the shine with these types of aggressive comments. The content speaks for itself and is already quite damning to the corrupt editors. No need for ad hominem attacks.
- mold_aid 6mo agoWhat on earth is the problem you people have with emotional appeals? It's so weird.
- ChrisMarshallNY 6mo agoWell...the reactions were ... enlightening I certainly apologize for hurting feelings. That was not my intent. I've just learned (the hard way, of course, because how else do we learn?), that using this kind of terminology, even though we may be feeling quite pithy, gives ammo to those that wish to discount us. This goes double, in my experience, for any context that prizes objectivity and articulate discussion.
- tomhow 6mo agoYour comment was fine. Sorry that others felt the need to be so hostile. As (I hope) you know, that's not what we want to see on HN.
- fancyfredbot 6mo agoI thought the caption "looking normal" was possibly a bit unnecessary. Then again, I also found it rather funny. I suspect this is because I am a bad person.
- Lerc 6mo agoI'm with you on this. There's a difference between exposing wrongdoing and being antagonistic. Doing them both together increases the amplitude of the signal at the cost of reducing the integrity of the signal. If you wonder why the world is informationally too loud and too noisy these days, it's because everyone who does this is turning up the volume to be louder than others who are also, in turn, turning up the volume for the same reasons.
- fsckboy 6mo agopithy: Concise and meaningful. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pithy https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pithy
- ChrisMarshallNY 6mo agoHate to break it to you, but it’s an age-old rhetorical technique, to use semi-polite language, to stand in for less-polite language. I’ve been using “pithy” as a a rhetorical hook for decades. It’s fairly common.