[mindcrime]

Saying that most PhDs you worked with are idiots

The person you are replying to did not say that.

[goatlover]

But they did say "many of them are idiots", which is similar and rather arrogant. I don't trust people who claim their colleagues and classmates are idiots. Dunning-Kruger effect and hubris being what they are.

[mindcrime]

But they did say "many of them are idiots", which is similar

Similar, yes. But, at least to my mind, there's a pretty big jump from "many" to "most". But maybe that's just me. shrug

[xeromal]

Mot really, many still sounds like more than 50%. That's a huge claim

[blotter_paper]

Nope, we have a separate word for that: most.

[haolez]

If the performance of those PhDs were extremely subpar to the point of hindering the research altogether, what sentence would you use to describe this situation?

[dekhn]

I think that's what they said, slightly paraphrased: "I've published papers in bio and worked with many PhDs. Many of them were idiots"

I have no interest in arguing about the interpretation of that sentence.

[mindcrime]

I have no interest in arguing about the interpretation of that sentence.

Then don't "interpret" anything. The person who wrote that sentence explicitly said "many" and not "most". Barring some evidence to the contrary, the sensible thing to do is take it literally, no interpretation necessary.

[dekhn]

I changed the text from "most" to "many" to more closely match. This seems like a fairly pedantic thing to complain about, not really contributing to the substance of my argument.