Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by untilHellbanned 4660 days ago
anecdotes don't justify asterisks
1 comments

Actually, you'll find that while a single anecdote doesn't provide evidence for a general theory, it does provide enough of a counter-example to disprove a statement.

How can it be the case that nobody uses old IE by choice, if at least one person does?

The 'nobody' in the title is used figuratively for emphasis. The point of the link is to raise the issue for discussion, not to provide scientific proof that no one uses older versions of IE by choice.
Yes, and providing stories about how people you know who do use oldIE by choice is discussing the issue, and shouldn't warrant the kneejerk "anecdote != evidence" argument, which is what I was railing against.
It'll disprove a genuine universal statement of the kind that can be expressed with a "∀x" quantifier.

But anecdotes are pretty useless against hyperbole. About the best you can accomplish by going that route is to devolve the conversation into a quagmire of "dueling anecdotes" sophistry.

overly literal