Clippy comments on Open Thread, August 2010 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: NancyLebovitz 01 August 2010 01:27PM

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Comment author: PeerInfinity 08 August 2010 01:57:59AM *  2 points [-]

Scenario: A life insurance salesman, who happens to be a trusted friend of a relatively-new-but-so-far-trustworthy friend of yours, is trying to sell you a life insurance policy. He makes the surprising claim that after 20 years of selling life insurance, none of his clients have died. He seems to want you to think that buying a life insurance policy from him will somehow make you less likely to die.

How do you respond?

edit: to make this question more interesting: you also really don't want to offend any of the people involved.

Comment author: Clippy 08 August 2010 04:00:25AM 3 points [-]

Buying life insurance can't extend a human's life.

Comment author: SilasBarta 09 August 2010 09:08:02PM *  1 point [-]

Thank you, Cliptain Obvious! The problem is to say how his claim is implausible or doesn't follow from his evidence, given that we already have that intuition.