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by the-alchemist
996 days ago
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No one's perfect, but I'm a fan because she'll tell you if something is her-possibly-unpopular opinion (see particle physics), well-accepted scientific fact, or her pet opinion. You know where she stands, and tells you her agenda, if any. Or, if she's trying really hard to stay away from _any_ bias (see her video on trans). More generally, I don't like the "stay in your lane" opinion. To more forward as a society, we need _more_ interdisciplinary work, not less. Mathematicians need to work with engineers and architects, psychologists with economicists, etc. Of course, let's call out bad science or bias, but let's not ignore valuable insights because they came from the wrong lane. I like her videos because I'm generally curious what a fairly unbiased intelligent person thinks about trans issues, economics, etc. Even if I don't agree with them on everything, not should you. |
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She also doesn't seem particularly unbiased to me. Like, I don't think one can ever be unbiased, but someone with a lot of knowledge about a subject can do a good job of identifying the biases they have in that area and try and approach things more objectively, or at least indicate where they're speaking for themselves and where they're describing beliefs in the field. For example, I'm a frontend developer with a bunch of biases for certain technologies and styles of development, because those are the ones I'm used to and invested in. But I know the field well enough to - I hope - be able to recognise those biases and tell you that you don't need SolidJS for your next project, even though I think it's really cool and want more people to get involved there.
Rather, Hossenfelder feels like she just doesn't know what her biases are in the first place, at least when discussing something like economics. Based on your comment, I'm sure that's not true for the subjects that she is knowledgeable in - you bring up particle physics as an example of an area where she knows her opinions aren't necessarily standard. But in the video I watched, she presented herself as this neutral figure telling you only the facts, and then said things that ranged from being out-of-date or untrue, to things that didn't even really make much sense.
I agree with you that "stay in your lane" is a bad counter to these sorts of videos, because collaboration between fields is good. But good collaboration takes a lot of humility - you need to come to the table knowing that you know almost nothing about the other field, and accepting that you're going to have to learn a lot of stuff. At least from the stuff I've watched, I don't get the impression that Hossenfelder has put the work in to understand what she doesn't understand. And that, to me, is pretty much the definition of wilful ignorance - she knows she is not an expert in this field, but she doesn't seem to want to put the effort in to get the opinions and feedback from real experts. Instead, she's assumed her own knowledge is enough.