Showing posts with label the intertubes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the intertubes. Show all posts

Dec 9, 2024

Voila! I Think - Maybe

The language is coded.

In the current vernacular of social media culture, "Do your own research" translates to: "Surf the web until the algorithms dish up enough sugary mental junk food to make you feel better about having been so fucking stupid all this time."

There's a very low probability that you've found any real answers, and a very high probability that you've built yourself a false reality.

Once upon a time, I worked with some pretty high-level people - doctors, medical researchers, etc. I had the easy job of selling stuff to these really smart guys, so all I had to do to learn a few things from them, was to ask some hopefully-not-too-stupid questions, and then shut up and listen.

One of the main things they taught me was that really smart scientists never say 'never' and they never say 'always'. They're very careful to say things like, "As far as we know", and "It's all but certain".

When you're talking with someone who's earned the right to be arrogant about their actual, honest-to-god expertise, it's kinda weird to hear them say something like, "I'm pretty sure", instead of "I'm the doctor - my word is law".

If you hear somebody come on with that last bit, then you have to decide: Am I being recalcitrant and fact-averse, or is he just asserting his ego? There's almost always a judgement call to be made. For me, I tend to trust the people whose names are followed by half the alphabet.

So stay humble: The more you learn, the more you need to understand how little you actually know, and how much more there is to find out.



Nov 4, 2024

Overheard


The greatest challenge
in the age of the internet
occurs when you learn enough
to believe you're right,
but stop before you learn enough
to know you're wrong.

Jun 26, 2024

Today's Leeja

You may be the problem.

Or maybe it's me.

How sure are you that I'm not some computer-generated bot posting this weird shit, and my creators have the real Mike stashed in an abandoned mine shaft somewhere up around Bonner's Ferry? 

Oooooh - or we could go completely into the dark and say maybe Mike's actually been dead for years.

You don't know any of that. Not really. I do - I know it - I think.

Fortunately, my little blog here doesn't have that big a reach, so even if I am artificial, the damage I might do is limited.

Let's get an explainer from Leeja Miller.



As always, the problem isn't
that people are mis-informed.
The problem is that
people are making
a conscious decision
to stay mis-informed.