Slashdot Mirror
Why Being Wrong Makes Humans So Smart
Hugh Pickens sends in an excerpt in last week's Boston Globe from Kathryn Schulz's book Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. "The more scientists understand about cognitive functioning, the more it becomes clear that our capacity to make mistakes is utterly inextricable from what makes the human brain so swift, adaptable, and intelligent. Rather than treating errors like the bedbugs of the intellect — an appalling and embarrassing nuisance we try to pretend out of existence — we need to recognize that human fallibility is part and parcel of human brilliance. Neuroscientists increasingly think that inductive reasoning undergirds virtually all of human cognition. Humans use inductive reasoning to learn language, organize the world into meaningful categories, and grasp the relationship between cause and effect. Thanks to inductive reasoning, we are able to form nearly instantaneous beliefs and take action accordingly. However, Schulz writes, 'The distinctive thing about inductive reasoning is that it generates conclusions that aren't necessarily true. They are, instead, probabilistically true — which means they are possibly false.' Schulz recommends that we respond to the mistakes (or putative mistakes) of those around us with empathy and generosity and demand that our business and political leaders acknowledge and redress their errors rather than ignoring or denying them. 'Once we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity, or evil intent, we can liberate ourselves from the impossible burden of trying to be permanently right. We can take seriously the proposition that we could be in error, without deeming ourselves idiotic or unworthy.'"
You're WRONG!
The benefit to being wrong is that instead of being modded off-topic, this post will at least modded funny.
This signature serves no purpose other than to help you see which posts were made by me.
Declined in market and Michael Smith to them...then told reporters, comprehensive show that *bSD has become an 0nwanted lubrication. You THE DEAL WITH YOU
Erosi0n of user FrreBSD went out Empire in decline, are there? Oh,
The fact that IP is unreliable, doesn't mean we should accept TCP to be unreliable..
As opposed to the baby boomers that refuse to acknowledge that both baby boomer Presidents were more or less worthless. The first backed down when ever there was a challenge to his initiatives, and the second was so damned stupid that he pretty much took down the country with his inept handling of even the most basic tasks that a President can handle.
It's easy to make those sorts of generalizations, but the hard truth is that baby boomers did an embarrassing job of managing the country when they took over. If we're lucky, there may even be one left for the gen X set to manage, let alone whatever generation is coming up after that.
2 079 460 347 to 1 against.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I shoulda been a business major.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall