[pavs]

> You would say it's irrational for me to be less skeptical of the WSJ than of timecube.com? I have to doubt my father's advice equally as much as I would doubt that of a psychopath?

I wouldn't say its irrational, I would say it defeats the purpose of being skeptic. Skepticism for _me_ is a filtering mechanism that helps me consume information.

Lets say I got an information from two source that says "I saw an alien species from Mars driving a Bentley." (The person insists he is not joking). Whether the information comes from my father or a psychopath is a moot point. Your skepticism alarm should set off, assuming you understand the probability of such a thing happening is close to zero.

Whether you trust your father's advice or a stranger's advice, should depend on the advice not where its coming from. IMO.

[powrtoch]

And what if the advice is "Here, drink this"?

You're correct that if we know with high certainty whether the info is true, the source becomes irrelevant (and the higher the certainty, the less weight the source's credibility carries). But if you extend that to areas of higher uncertainty... that's simply not a workable way of approaching the world.

[pavs]

I am referring to information, (I used the word advice to your point of "fathers" or "Psychopaths" advice) you are referring to everything.

"Here, drink this." is not an information.

I said: "You should have your skepticism filter on by default at the same filter rate, regardless of the source of the information."

Edit: Clarification.

[jokermatt999]

Replace "Here, drink this." with "This drink is good for you and you should drink it."

Better?

[pavs]

Information would be, "This drink is good for you and you should drink it."

The part, "This drink is good for you" is an information; and thus you should show some healthy amount of skepticism about it. Is the drink laden with high-fructose corn syrup? What do you know about the drink to take the claim "It is good for you" seriously or not? Whether the information is coming from your father or not is a moot point. Maybe your father is ill-informed about the drink, should you take his word for it?

[joeyo]

  > Whether you trust your father's advice or a stranger's
  > advice, should depend on the advice not where its coming
  > from. IMO.

I can't agree with this. To not assign each source a prior based on how reliable they have been in the past is suboptimal.