I would perhaps make an exception for the context if I thought Zack’s strategy was even remotely effective. But I’m not going to encourage futile self flagellation by allowing self directed slander an exception to my usual standards. Here isn’t the place for calling people retarded, particularly when their problem has almost nothing to do with delayed or substandard intellectual development.
A more useful criticism would be:
Insane. Insane. Insane. Insane.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
That’s a stupid quote. The fact that it’s often attributed to Ben Franklin is even more ridiculous. Insanity (psychological problems) rarely includes that as a symptom, and even when it does it’s only a small part of the problem. (OCD doesn’t count, because the compulsion doesn’t include a belief that this time will be any different.)
Replace “insanity” with “stupidity” and the quote isn’t quite as stupid.
I have a particularly nasty relationship with that particular quote. And, an even more toxic relationship with the group that seems to popularize that quote. Seems that they are the bastion of an acutely massive amount of crazy themselves, yet seem to be blind to that fact.
Oh, it’s not so bad a quote. If we define sanity around here as being more Bayesian (that’s the waterline we’re trying to raise, right?) then defining insanity as refusal to update when more data comes would make sense.
I tend to agree.
I would perhaps make an exception for the context if I thought Zack’s strategy was even remotely effective. But I’m not going to encourage futile self flagellation by allowing self directed slander an exception to my usual standards. Here isn’t the place for calling people retarded, particularly when their problem has almost nothing to do with delayed or substandard intellectual development.
A more useful criticism would be:
Insane. Insane. Insane. Insane.
That’s a stupid quote. The fact that it’s often attributed to Ben Franklin is even more ridiculous. Insanity (psychological problems) rarely includes that as a symptom, and even when it does it’s only a small part of the problem. (OCD doesn’t count, because the compulsion doesn’t include a belief that this time will be any different.)
Replace “insanity” with “stupidity” and the quote isn’t quite as stupid.
I have a particularly nasty relationship with that particular quote. And, an even more toxic relationship with the group that seems to popularize that quote. Seems that they are the bastion of an acutely massive amount of crazy themselves, yet seem to be blind to that fact.
Oh, it’s not so bad a quote. If we define sanity around here as being more Bayesian (that’s the waterline we’re trying to raise, right?) then defining insanity as refusal to update when more data comes would make sense.