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BigV · 11-09-2012, 01:36 PM

Very good points SD. I can't answer your question as to who's blowin smoke up your butt, because I don't know.

But your strategy, no, wait, your awareness that there might be other points of view that are valid, important, correct, etc. but that you are missing by a little or a lot is, to my mind, a signal characteristic of high intelligence. Now, that sounds a lot like buttsmoke... maybe. It isn't though. It's the only way to know, by wondering, examining what might be missed.

Keep an open mind, keep asking questions like this of yourself and others around you. It isn't directly or immediately pleasant to hear stuff that's ... uncomfortable for whatever reason. But if you have good tools to evaluate the quality of such information, you can have some confidence about how important it is to incorporate such information into what you "know". Considering the source and motivation of the speaker, confirming the information from other sources, comparing it to what you know already, checking the math yourself, these kinds of tools can help you accept good information even from sources you might dismiss.

11-09-2012, 01:36 PM	#4
BigV Goon Squad Leader Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Seattle Posts: 27,063	Very good points SD. I can't answer your question as to who's blowin smoke up your butt, because I don't know. But your strategy, no, wait, your awareness that there might be other points of view that are valid, important, correct, etc. but that you are missing by a little or a lot is, to my mind, a signal characteristic of high intelligence. Now, that sounds a lot like buttsmoke... maybe. It isn't though. It's the only way to know, by wondering, examining what might be missed. Keep an open mind, keep asking questions like this of yourself and others around you. It isn't directly or immediately pleasant to hear stuff that's ... uncomfortable for whatever reason. But if you have good tools to evaluate the quality of such information, you can have some confidence about how important it is to incorporate such information into what you "know". Considering the source and motivation of the speaker, confirming the information from other sources, comparing it to what you know already, checking the math yourself, these kinds of tools can help you accept good information even from sources you might dismiss. __________________ Be Just and Fear Not.