fubarobfusco comments on SotW: Be Specific - Less Wrong

37 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 03 April 2012 06:11AM

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Comment author: fubarobfusco 04 April 2012 02:30:36PM *  0 points [-]

I like this. Some refinements:

  • Make at least one statement about yourself.
  • Make at least one statement a moral claim (e.g. "eating meat is wrong").
  • Distinguish the contradiction of the sentence (e.g. "some religions are not ancient") from the contrary ("no religions are ancient").
  • Identify a relevant base rate that the subject of your statement can be compared with (e.g. "organic food is as nutritious as conventionally grown food").
  • Break the statement down into at least three distinct refinements (e.g. "organic food contains more vitamins", "organic food contains fewer insecticides", "people who switch to an organic diet report health benefits").
  • Describe specific tests for those refined statements (e.g. "we could measure the Vitamin A, C, and E content of these strawberries").