[tedsanders]

Low-effort, snarky comments like these are not useful. In my opinion, they are damaging the culture of HackerNews and making it less valuable to read.

Was Galileo wrong when he speculated that helicopters were possible? Absolutely not. Was Girolamo Fracastoro wrong when he speculated that germs caused illness? Absolutely not.

If you're going to be snarky, at least be right.

[retsibsi]

I think he had a reasonable point, though.

If you predict that X will happen, and it eventually does, then sure, you were right about that. But if you take an action that will cause you to profit if X happens within 5 years and to lose money otherwise, you're effectively predicting that X will happen within 5 years. If X happens after 10 years, then to say that you were right, just too early, is misleading: in fact you were right that X would happen, but wrong about when it would happen, and you chose to bet on both of those things.

Maybe this is a bit pedantic, but surely it's at least correct.

[nickjarboe]

Galileo and helicopters? I think you mean Leonardo da Vinci.

[jstanley]

He's not wrong. He's just early.