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>>the sort of hair-brained schemes HN believes would fool them

Is there much value in an ad-hominem reply?

Or in generalizing it to an entire community? The irony seems hard to avoid when such a generalization is made without mentioning any statistical foundation, while pontificating about statistics.




> Is there much value in an ad-hominem reply?

> Or in generalizing it to an entire community?

I don't like this style either but sometimes I think we deserve it for being a smug echo chamber.

Basically, much the same thing could have been said in a different way and I would have upvoted it.


> we deserve it for being a smug echo chamber.

This and more. Almost every comment here is made with absolute confidence and authority, much more than is warranted. The tone of the person who said that "it's a great way to commit statistical fraud" without a caveat sounded like a know-it-all who knows better than the FDA and the scientists who made this cure in the first place or that they're outright unethical.

Most times such comments get upvoted. Sometimes they get downvoted when they're called out on their BS. So there's some balance.


Have you read any thread that involves statistics? I havent really detected that low an opinion for the FDA in particular but I recognised the broad outline painted.

I could add quite a few more generalisations myself while I'm at it, HN isn't solely populated by hyper intelligent, well reasoned, logical doctors, who form their ideas completely independently of everyone else. There's going to be group think, there's going to be like minded individuals attracted to one another, that's human nature, deal with it.

I don't even think it's an ad-hominem. HNers are generally argumentative gits (generalisation), who like finding an exception/hack/new way of looking at something (generalisation). I have no problem with some of those schemes being described as 'hairbrained' (sic although actually... [1]), but that's why I come here, because if people didn't think that way they wouldn't be Hackers.

[1] https://www.thefreedictionary.com/harebrained


> sic although actually...

Not sure if that was for comedic effect but I laughed out loud! A brilliant demonstration of the behaviour you describe.


It's a fair question, this shouldn't be downvoted even though I also think the original generalization was fair.




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