cousin_it comments on A Proof of Occam's Razor - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Unknowns 10 August 2010 02:20PM

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Comment author: cousin_it 12 August 2010 08:50:06AM *  9 points [-]

Don't feel bad, you're actually a hero. The four levels of depravity, by cousin_it:

  1. Ask an illiterate question.

  2. Assert an illiterate statement.

  3. Assert and violently defend an illiterate statement.

  4. Assert and violently defend an illiterate statement, becoming offended and switching to ad hominems when you begin to lose.

I'm not sure if other people can successfully learn math topics from Wikipedia because I'm atypical and other-optimizing is hard. Anyway, here's how you tell whether you actually understand a math topic: you should be able to solve simple problems. For example, someone who can't find Nash equilibria in simple 2x2 games is unqualified to talk about the Prisoner's Dilemma, and someone who can't solve the different Monty Hall variants is unqualified to talk about Bayesianism and priors.

Comment author: WrongBot 13 August 2010 08:12:56PM 2 points [-]

You should post this hierarchy somewhere more permanent. It seems... useful.