
More On Lies - pchristensen
http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/lies.html
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dnaquin
_A modern analogy that illustrates this is a famous interview problem: you
have a cake with an irregular piece cut out of it, and you have to figure out
how to cut the cake into equal pieces. The smarter the person, the harder it
is for them so solve this problem. People come up with all sorts of ingenious
(and usually incorrect) solutions, when the obvious solution is staring them
right in the face - just cut the cake horizontally._

This solution, of course, is just another implicit assumption that the
irregular shape cut out of the cake is oriented vertically.

~~~
coffeemug
> This solution, of course, is just another implicit assumption that the
> irregular shape cut out of the cake is oriented vertically.

This is an excellent observation. I didn't realize this when I was writing
about it.

~~~
dnaquin
Typically, if you describe a problem that is harder to solve the smarter the
person is, there's some implicit assumption. The problem gets harder for
smarter folks, because there is no general solution.

~~~
coffeemug
Right. Being able to see these assumptions is arguably an incredibly useful
skill. More traditional intelligence coupled with ability to see such
assumptions should get you much further than traditional intelligence alone.

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jganetsk
_A good example of this is the "flat Earth model". It took thousands of years
for a thought that the Earth may not be flat to enter people's minds. Why?_

The "flat Earth model" is actually a myth. I guess you've been lied to. The
Earth being flat was not a prevailing view in the Middle Ages. By that point,
it was well known that the Earth is round.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_mythology>

~~~
swombat
To add to that, the "Flat earth" idea was not even implicit before the middle
ages - it was generally described as such in numerous religious texts. For
instance, the ancient hebrews believed the earth to be a flat disc under a
hemispherical sky pierced with holes that were the stars. But that's stated in
the religious texts, not implicit at all.

Thumbs down for the article, I'm afraid. Possible good point, but so drowned
by poor examples that it's hard to take it seriously.

Daniel

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lisper
This essay really makes me wish for down-arrows. It seems to me nothing more
than a plug for Alan Watts's CD, and the not-exactly-earth-shattering
observation that people sometimes make unwarranted assumptions. A few more
examples of the kinds of these "far more dangerous lies" would have been
helpful.

~~~
radu_floricica
I really like that there are no down arrows.

As someone said above, maybe the examples are not perfect, but the point is
very much valid. If you think we don't have a lot of (potentially harmful)
implicit assumptions, you're making a very big one. We're not at the pinnacle
of civilization right now. We're still just monkeys building things. Pretty
much the same we think people 100 years ago were ... naive, to be gentle, the
same we'll seem to the people 100 years into the future. Point is, any way
that can help move us up faster is worth a look. I haven't listened to "that
guy"'s CDs, and I may come to the conclusion that they're full of crap, but
I'm going to give them a shot.

(Full disclosure: I may be slightly subjective because I spent the last
weekend reading weblocks source code. But I still agree with the main ideea).

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edw519
1\. pg writes essay.

2\. Essay is posted on hn.

3\. Essay quickly becomes #1 with 100 points.

4\. 200 comments. Debate ensues.

5\. The "pg aftermarket" blogs their rebuttals.

6\. Many pg aftermarket blogs get posted to hn.

7\. Many more comments. Much more debate.

8\. 3 days later, someone says, "Enough already about ..." That post gets
downmodded to -10.

9\. 1 month later, go to Step 1 (I hope).

~~~
PieSquared
...but I wouldn't say that is a bad thing. I tend to find such debates rather
fun to watch and participate in.

~~~
edw519
No, definitely not a bad thing. More like a phenomenon.

Sometimes I wonder if pg planned it this way all along.

~~~
hugh
I'd argue that the phenomenon _is_ a bad thing only to the extent that it
encourages people to write articles like this. It's a mostly-unrelated, fairly
uninsightful way for some guy to whore for his own belief system (everybody
buy some guy's CDs!) by disguising it as a response to pg's essay.

~~~
coffeemug
It is not a disguise, I couldn't be more direct about it. My goal was to
introduce people to an excellent (yet little known these days) author who did
a very good job explaining these concepts and helping people free themselves
from the bondage of their assumptions.

Do you ever read a book and find it so good you want to tell the whole world
about it, yet when you try to tell people all you get are blank stares? This
is it.

I guess it's a natural reaction in an age when too many people plug too much
bad content. All I can say is, read the wikipedia article about him, read his
essays, then make up your mind.

~~~
hugh
_Do you ever read a book and find it so good you want to tell the whole world
about it, yet when you try to tell people all you get are blank stares?_

Yep. And then a few years later, when I re-read that same book, I realized
that it just wasn't as good as I'd thought it was at that stage of my life. It
was actually kinda trite. The blank starers were right all along. I only
thought it was great because I was young and I was being exposed to new ideas
that I already kinda agreed with for the first time.

Any of that sound familiar?

And now I just wanna travel back in time and slap my thirteen-year-old self
for listening to The Dark Side Of The Moon over and over. It's not _that_
great an album, younger-me!

~~~
nostrademons
Then you remember that there are millions of other younger people out there
now that are at the same stage in _their_ lives that you were in then. Just
because it's trite to you doesn't mean it'll be trite to everyone.

And I still think Dark Side of the Moon is a great album. I actually like it
more now than I did as a teenager.

~~~
edw519
"And I still think Dark Side of the Moon is a great album. I actually like it
more now than I did as a teenager."

lol!

I wore out 3 vinyl versions of it.

Then, I hated it when it was on CD.

Then, it was the first thing that ever went onto my ipod. I've come full
circle.

Nothing else brings back more memories for me, good and bad, older and recent.

And nothing is better now for "mellow" hacking.

Sorry, I couldn't resist...

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlY-JlE5ZCo>

