Sometimes, the amount of optimization power that was put into the words is less than you expect, or less than the gravity of the words would imply.
Some examples:
“You are not funny.” (Did they evaluate your funniness across many domains and in diverse contexts in order to justify a claim like that?)
“Don’t use this drug, it doesn’t help.” (Did they do the double-blind studies on a diverse enough population to justify a claim like that?)
“That’s the best restaurant in town.” (Did they really go to every restaurant in town? Did they consider that different people have different food preferences?)
That doesn’t mean you should disregard those words. You should use them as evidence. But instead of updating on the event “I’m not funny,” you should update on the event “This person, having some intent, not putting a lot of effort into evaluating this thing and mostly going off the vibes and shortness of the sentence, said to me ‘You are not funny.’”
People sometimes just say stuff.
Sometimes, the amount of optimization power that was put into the words is less than you expect, or less than the gravity of the words would imply.
Some examples:
“You are not funny.” (Did they evaluate your funniness across many domains and in diverse contexts in order to justify a claim like that?)
“Don’t use this drug, it doesn’t help.” (Did they do the double-blind studies on a diverse enough population to justify a claim like that?)
“That’s the best restaurant in town.” (Did they really go to every restaurant in town? Did they consider that different people have different food preferences?)
That doesn’t mean you should disregard those words. You should use them as evidence. But instead of updating on the event “I’m not funny,” you should update on the event “This person, having some intent, not putting a lot of effort into evaluating this thing and mostly going off the vibes and shortness of the sentence, said to me ‘You are not funny.’”