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by Symmetry 4759 days ago
And given the topic, there's neccesarily a relevant Less Wrong link:

http://lesswrong.com/lw/he/knowing_about_biases_can_hurt_peo...

Once upon a time I tried to tell my mother about the problem of expert calibration, saying: "So when an expert says they're 99% confident, it only happens about 70% of the time." Then there was a pause as, suddenly, I realized I was talking to my mother, and I hastily added: "Of course, you've got to make sure to apply that skepticism evenhandedly, including to yourself, rather than just using it to argue against anything you disagree with—"

And my mother said: "Are you kidding? This is great! I'm going to use it all the time!"

1 comments

the author of TFA also has bad things to say about less wrong: http://plover.net/~bonds/cultofbayes.html
Wow, he certainly does. There were some bits in there I'll have to think about, but mostly it was pretty hilarious. Accusations of sexual deviancy? Tarring by association with Skype? Really?