Rain comments on Even if you have a nail, not all hammers are the same - Less Wrong

95 Post author: PhilGoetz 29 March 2010 06:09PM

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Comment author: RobinZ 30 March 2010 03:34:21PM * 4 points [-]

Yes. But it seems fundamental enough that experts should have caught it, therefore I am skeptical.

Some questions (this is an obviously incomplete* list, of course) to ask when you are in this situation:

Is the source pointing out the error reliable?
Does the criticized work acknowledge or otherwise address the claim?
Does the criticized work contain other flaws? (Subcategory: is the criticized work sloppy or lazy in execution?)

In this particular case, the answer to the third question appears to be "yes". This is probably good reason to raise your probability that this particular criticism is correct.

* Bear in mind, of course, Eliezer Yudkowsky's warning: If you want to shoot your foot off, it is never the least bit difficult to do so.

Comment author: Rain 01 April 2010 05:09:02PM 1 point [-]

Thank you. These steps for analysis are very useful to me, and I feel they answer my original questions.

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