You’ve made me wonder: Where do you ask for recommendations or advice Said? Of whom? How do you you account for unknown unknowns? Do you never ask for clarifying or additional questions about their suggestions? Just your replies here appear to be quite curious so I find it confusing that you would so strenuously argue for a “and that’s all she wrote” approach.
Well, the most common places/contexts where I ask for recommendations would be the various chat channels where I talk to people (which could be my IRL friends, or not). Most people in such places are fairly intelligent, knowledgeable, and technically adept.
Do I ask clarifying or additional questions? Sure, but such questions tend to be clarifying of my own purposes or needs, rather than the recommender’s reasons for giving the recommendations. More common is for me to need to clarify my request rather than for recommenders to need to clarify their recommendations.
How do I account for unknown unknowns? Well, uh… I don’t, mostly? They’re unknown, so how can I account for them? Perhaps you have in mind some question like “what general policies can mitigate the downside risk of unknown unknowns”? Indeed there are such things, but they tend to be very general, like the well-known principle of “first buy the cheapest version of the tool you need, and use it until it breaks; then you’ll known enough to make a more informed choice”; or practical, common-sense principles like “whenever possible, buy from vendors that allow free returns”.
As for “reasoning”… this just doesn’t seem to be the right way to think about this sort of thing. We’re talking about facts (nothing to reason about here) and evaluations on the basis of given criteria (also not much room for “reasoning”). “Reasoning” applies when coming up with criteria, but once that’s done—what’s to reason about?
How do I know I have the best criteria for me? I can do a really rigorous job of explaining my situation, my biases, my personal experience and my current level of understanding and knowledge. But the whole point of asking for recommendations is to find unknown unknonws: not only products or solutions on the market, but criteria I may not have even thought of, or at least under-prioritized.
Hm… I think I see your point now, yes.
What you want, it seems to me, is a way to prompt the would-be recommender to give you as much of their relevant domain knowledge as possible. Basically, you want to get the person to talk. The way to do that, in my experience, is actually to say less about your own situation and problem, at least at first. Instead, try to elicit opinion. People generally love to talk about their views about things. So, not “what [camera/mixer] would you recommend, given these specific needs”, but “what is the best [camera/mixer], and why”. Then once you’ve got them talking, you can ask things like “but what if I specifically need X, what are your thoughts on that”—and now you should get some more detailed response.
(Incidentally, on my own “Recommended Kitchen Tools” page, I do try to explain my reasons, and to impart knowledge of non-obvious pitfalls and considerations, etc.)
Well, the most common places/contexts where I ask for recommendations would be the various chat channels where I talk to people (which could be my IRL friends, or not). Most people in such places are fairly intelligent, knowledgeable, and technically adept.
Do I ask clarifying or additional questions? Sure, but such questions tend to be clarifying of my own purposes or needs, rather than the recommender’s reasons for giving the recommendations. More common is for me to need to clarify my request rather than for recommenders to need to clarify their recommendations.
How do I account for unknown unknowns? Well, uh… I don’t, mostly? They’re unknown, so how can I account for them? Perhaps you have in mind some question like “what general policies can mitigate the downside risk of unknown unknowns”? Indeed there are such things, but they tend to be very general, like the well-known principle of “first buy the cheapest version of the tool you need, and use it until it breaks; then you’ll known enough to make a more informed choice”; or practical, common-sense principles like “whenever possible, buy from vendors that allow free returns”.
Hm… I think I see your point now, yes.
What you want, it seems to me, is a way to prompt the would-be recommender to give you as much of their relevant domain knowledge as possible. Basically, you want to get the person to talk. The way to do that, in my experience, is actually to say less about your own situation and problem, at least at first. Instead, try to elicit opinion. People generally love to talk about their views about things. So, not “what [camera/mixer] would you recommend, given these specific needs”, but “what is the best [camera/mixer], and why”. Then once you’ve got them talking, you can ask things like “but what if I specifically need X, what are your thoughts on that”—and now you should get some more detailed response.
(Incidentally, on my own “Recommended Kitchen Tools” page, I do try to explain my reasons, and to impart knowledge of non-obvious pitfalls and considerations, etc.)