Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by moshezadka 5701 days ago
When I read this, I could not stop thinking about Harry Potter & The Methods of Rationality, and how HP calls out Dumbledore out for "pretending to be wise".

See http://lesswrong.com/lw/yp/pretending_to_be_wise/ for an explanation -- the post above is a clever take on that. Instead of refusing to pass judgement, it's giving advice that, as the people who did think of it as wise said, "is bullshit if you take it at face value" -- it's meant to serve as a counter-balance to the exact opposites of those, which are obviously also good advice, often given.

By saying a thing, and implying you also believe its opposite, you can never be wrong.

I don't really affiliate myself with the rationalist movement, but I think they have developed a number of useful tools to learn to call people out on trying to bullshit you.