On Wednesday, 23 September 2015 at 16:13:37 UTC, Nick Sabalausky
wrote:
On 09/23/2015 11:45 AM, John Colvin wrote:
I think you're misinterpreting some of these people. Some will
be
following fashions, but many will be simply not wanting to put
time and
effort in to something that they're not convinced is going to
work out
in the long run.
That amounts to the same thing, just indirectly: It's a myopic
approach that involves a failure to understand the basic
dynamics of plain old self-fulfilling prophecies:
"Things succeed/fail BECAUSE people LIKE ME use it or pass on
it. Therefore, we should make that choice based on whether it's
WORTHY. Because if instead, we base it on whether we think
OTHER people will/won't use it (ESPECIALLY if THOSE people are
ALSO going to be choosing based on the same 'what is everyone
else going to pick?' crystal ball), then we're all chasing each
other's tails and the result boils down to randomness (at best)
or more likely, becomes predominantly influenced by superficial
factors and biased parties."
It's a very, very basic line of logic, especially for people in
a profession that's so fundamentally rooted in exactly such
logical reasoning.
Not everyone has your abilities, Nick. You probably
underestimate what it's like not to have them. (Knowing about
Dunning Kruger doesn't make it go away). Many people oughtn't to
try and pick the best framework because they don't have the
discernment to do so. And for others they simply don't have the
time given the situation they're in. Making decisions based on
social factors isn't my cup of tea, but you can't really blame
people for it. Life is from an ideal in many ways.
But not everyone is like that or has such constraints, and it is
those that one must appeal to.
