anonym comments on Costs and Benefits of Scholarship - Less Wrong

40 Post author: lukeprog 22 March 2011 02:19AM

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Comment author: Vladimir_M 22 March 2011 04:04:26AM *  12 points [-]

Now, what did I miss?

Clearly, as you hinted by noting that studying certain subjects can actually make you dumber, the key problem is how to evaluate the soundness and reliability of the existing literature in a given area as an non-expert. I raised this topic many times on LW, including in a recent top-level article, but there doesn't seem to be much interest in it here -- even though the issue is, in my opinion, of crucial importance, not least because all the arguments about the value and importance of scholarship that you list also hinge on it.

Comment author: anonym 22 March 2011 05:20:37AM 10 points [-]

Why do you say there doesn't seem to be much interest? Your post has 48 karma and 244 comments. That doesn't seem like "not much interest" to me.

Comment author: Vladimir_M 22 March 2011 10:55:26PM 3 points [-]

I wasn't referring specifically to my article, but noting that the topic generally doesn't get the attention that, in my opinion, it deserves. (And even when it comes to the article itself, most of the comments were in subthreads that quickly drifted off the main topic or went into meta-discussions of whether the choice of issues discussed in the article is improper, though of course there were a few very good on-topic comments, as usual.)