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Indeed, I wish I"d gotten a degree in evo bio, as its proponents are able to predict nearly everything about human behavior. After the fact, of course.
by mattgreenrocks 13y ago
Indeed, I wish I"d gotten a degree in evo bio, as its proponents are able to predict nearly everything about human behavior.
After the fact, of course.
- stavros 13y agoYou know how it goes, "explain everything, predict nothing". Or maybe you don't, because I just made that up, but it fits.
- jerf 13y agoThat is an established idea; if you can explain any possible outcome equally fluently, you can't explain anything. I find it a useful cognitive hack; if someone asks you whether X or Y will happen (and for the sake of argument let's discard "none of the above"), instead of asking that question of my brain directly, I try to pretend in sequence that both have already happened, and then explain why. If you can easily explain both, if neither gives you trouble, you don't really know, no matter how convincingly the rest of your brain may be telling you that you have an opinion.
- StavrosK 13y agoI meant the phrase, not the idea. I agree with you, though. Especially when someone tells me "well, it was obvious that X would happen, because Y", I ask them "what if I was lying and the opposite of X happened? Was that equally obvious? If both are obvious, then neither is".