4 ms·

> That's hardly ever true. Even pg discussed the phenomenon, as you undoubtedly know. There's a good idea, or a news article hailing progress, or some other ki

> That's hardly ever true. Even pg discussed the phenomenon, as you undoubtedly know. There's a good idea, or a news article hailing progress, or some other kind of optimism, then the first comment is a mid-brow dismissal. They are the lowest-effort comments to make; "that won't work because X isn't well-respected and Y often happens to similar teams" requires almost no research and cannot really be refuted. The only way to refute it is by calling a spade a spade, and look what I get for doing so: having my comment twisted to be fuzzy feel-good smarm crap, when really I'm just saying "shut up and get out of the way if you don't think it'll work."

rayiner 12y ago
I don't think of such comments as being "mid-brow" dismissals. Indeed, the people most knowledgable about the field are the ones who are most likely to tell you it won't work. And 97% of the time they'll be right. As for "shut up and get out of the way"--whose way exactly? Unless you're a nuclear physicist, comments expressing hopeful optimism aren't very useful.
CamperBob2 12y ago
The only solution is one that can't be applied here: LockMart shouldn't make extraordinary claims ("Check out this cool fusion reactor!") until they have extraordinary proof to go with them. Right now, this entire story is just a waste of space on a hard drive somewhere in Palo Alto, and no comments pro or con are going to change that.
- Anjin 12y ago
  I don't know about that. What you are suggesting doesn't really fit the MO of Skunkworks where they work on advanced projects for years before revealing them. It's not like they announced stealth aircraft in the 90s just to drive up their stock price, they'd been working on it for nearly 4o years by that point and the planes were flying missions for decades. Also someone on reddit made an interesting observation about job openings at Lockheed: http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/2jbgcf/lockheed_claims_breakthrough_on_fusion_energy/clafdkx http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/2jbgcf/lockheed_...
  - CamperBob2 12y ago
    With a fusion reactor, the only proof that's adequate would be a press conference at a facility where there's a large object under a tarp and a big red button to push. By itself, a press release on the subject just doesn't convey any actionable information, no matter what it says or who it comes from.

rayiner 12y ago

I don't think of such comments as being "mid-brow" dismissals. Indeed, the people most knowledgable about the field are the ones who are most likely to tell you it won't work. And 97% of the time they'll be right. As for "shut up and get out of the way"--whose way exactly? Unless you're a nuclear physicist, comments expressing hopeful optimism aren't very useful.

CamperBob2 12y ago

The only solution is one that can't be applied here: LockMart shouldn't make extraordinary claims ("Check out this cool fusion reactor!") until they have extraordinary proof to go with them. Right now, this entire story is just a waste of space on a hard drive somewhere in Palo Alto, and no comments pro or con are going to change that.

Anjin 12y ago
I don't know about that. What you are suggesting doesn't really fit the MO of Skunkworks where they work on advanced projects for years before revealing them. It's not like they announced stealth aircraft in the 90s just to drive up their stock price, they'd been working on it for nearly 4o years by that point and the planes were flying missions for decades. Also someone on reddit made an interesting observation about job openings at Lockheed: http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/2jbgcf/lockheed_claims_breakthrough_on_fusion_energy/clafdkx http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/2jbgcf/lockheed_...
- CamperBob2 12y ago
  With a fusion reactor, the only proof that's adequate would be a press conference at a facility where there's a large object under a tarp and a big red button to push. By itself, a press release on the subject just doesn't convey any actionable information, no matter what it says or who it comes from.