Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Why listen to the experts when you can listen to ME!!!11!!

Nice article on Neurologica: Deconstructing the Cranks.

Here's a quote:
Holly also demonstrates the true arrogance of those who equate their tangential knowledge with expertise. One theme I promote in this blog is proper humility when dealing with areas of knowledge in which one is not an expert. This does not mean you cannot have an opinion - but one should fairly account for the consensus of expert opinion and be wary of those who casually dismiss it.
I like that last bit enough to make it a rule of thumb:

Before going into the details of some personal opinion, people should summarize the expert consensus. If they can't do that, they must be told to STFU.

Time is money - life is short - lurk moar - and so forth.

4 comments:

  1. That is useful! (Just thought I would post anyway to show I do follow your blog, but I really like this entry)

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  2. Heh. There's a co-incidence.

    I was reading up on the Dunning-Kruger effect recently.

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  3. Saw this today Steve. Made me think of your pond project:

    Letter in the pond

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