thomblake comments on Beauty quips, "I'd shut up and multiply!" - Less Wrong

6 Post author: neq1 07 May 2010 02:34PM

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Comment author: thomblake 10 May 2010 06:23:51PM 0 points [-]

Actually I think it would make more sense to reply to my own comment in response to this. link

Comment author: timtyler 10 May 2010 08:13:50PM *  0 points [-]

I am not sure that is going anywhere.

Personally, I think I pretty-much nailed what was wrong with the claim that the problem was ambiguous here.

Comment author: thomblake 10 May 2010 08:26:57PM 3 points [-]

I think that we've established the following:

  1. there are some problems similar to this one for which the answer is 1/2
  2. there are some problems similar to this one for which the answer is 1/3
  3. people seem to be disagreeing which sort of problem this is
  4. all debate has devolved to debate over the meanings of words (in the problem statement and elsewhere)

Given this, I think it's obvious that the problem is ambiguous, and arguing whether the problem is ambiguous is counterproductive as compared to just sorting out which sort of problem you're responding to and what the right answer is.

Comment author: timtyler 10 May 2010 08:51:36PM 0 points [-]

IMHO, different people giving different answers to problems does not mean it is ambiguous. Nor does people disagreeing over the meanings of words. Words do have commonly-accepted meanings - that is how people communicate.

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