17 Mar

User talk:Jimbo Wales

‎"Ample evidence" for File:Paul Myners.jpg (copied from en.wikipedia)
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Revision as of 16:02, 17 March 2013
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If I tell you that it's safer to cross the street with the light, and you do so and get hit by a car that would have missed you had you crossed against the light, that doesn't prove my advice is wrong. It is possible for an alternative to be better than another one on the average yet sometimes fail when the worse alternative would have worked. The fact that you could have done better this one time by not following Jimbo's advice doesn't mean it's bad advice or shouldn't be followed in the future. [[:en:User:Ken Arromdee|Ken Arromdee]] ([[:en:User talk:Ken Arromdee|talk]]) 17:32, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

If I tell you that it's safer to cross the street with the light, and you do so and get hit by a car that would have missed you had you crossed against the light, that doesn't prove my advice is wrong. It is possible for an alternative to be better than another one on the average yet sometimes fail when the worse alternative would have worked. The fact that you could have done better this one time by not following Jimbo's advice doesn't mean it's bad advice or shouldn't be followed in the future. [[:en:User:Ken Arromdee|Ken Arromdee]] ([[:en:User talk:Ken Arromdee|talk]]) 17:32, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

:Just because you ''can'' chuck in an analogy that says nothing about the issue at hand doesn't mean you should. [[User:Rd232|Rd232]] ([[User talk:Rd232|talk]]) 13:55, 17 March 2013 (UTC)

:Just because you ''can'' chuck in an analogy that says nothing about the issue at hand doesn't mean you should. [[User:Rd232|Rd232]] ([[User talk:Rd232|talk]]) 13:55, 17 March 2013 (UTC)
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::The analogy is relevant. The point is that "I followed that advice and it didn't work, and if I had done something else it would have worked" doesn't prove that the advice is bad or that the alternative is good. Not all good advice works 100% of the time, and not every bad alternative fails 100% of the time.
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::The analogy is relevant. The point is that "I followed Jimbo's advice and it didn't work, and if I had done something else it would have worked" doesn't prove that the advice is bad or that the alternative is good. Not all good advice works 100% of the time, and not every bad alternative fails 100% of the time.

::There are people who are only alive because they weren't wearing seatbelts. There are even people who are alive only because they are obese (it involved a flesh-eating bacterium stopped by the fat). That doesn't mean that being thin is bad and obesity is good, even though "if they followed medical advice and lost weight they would have died". [[User:Ken Arromdee|Ken Arromdee]] ([[User talk:Ken Arromdee|talk]]) 16:00, 17 March 2013 (UTC)

::There are people who are only alive because they weren't wearing seatbelts. There are even people who are alive only because they are obese (it involved a flesh-eating bacterium stopped by the fat). That doesn't mean that being thin is bad and obesity is good, even though "if they followed medical advice and lost weight they would have died". [[User:Ken Arromdee|Ken Arromdee]] ([[User talk:Ken Arromdee|talk]]) 16:00, 17 March 2013 (UTC)

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