bogus comments on Marketing Rationality - Less Wrong

28 Post author: Viliam 18 November 2015 01:43PM

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Comment author: bogus 18 November 2015 04:28:24PM *  0 points [-]

the Shangri-La diet will get defenestrated as not good enough.

See, the difference is that the Shangri-La diet has some scientific backing, which the Stuff-Your-Face-With-Cookies diet conspicuously lacks. So, the former will win in any real contest, at least among people who are sufficiently rationally-minded[1]. Except that it won't, if you can't promote your message effectively. This is where your initial pitch matters.

[1] (People who aren't rationally-minded won't care about 'rationality', of course, so there's little hope for them anyway.)

Comment author: ChristianKl 18 November 2015 07:38:02PM 0 points [-]

Shangri-La diet has some scientific backing

I do believe that it works, but "scientific backing"? Did I miss some new study on the Shangri-La diet, or what are you talking about?

Comment author: Vaniver 18 November 2015 10:11:19PM 1 point [-]

People often use "scientific backing" to mean "this extrapolates reasonably from evidence" rather than "this has been tested directly."

Comment author: ChristianKl 18 November 2015 10:49:55PM *  3 points [-]

If you use the word scientific that way I think you lose a quite valuable word. I consider NLP to be extrapolated from evidence. I even have seen it tested directly a variety of times. At the same time I don't consider it to be scientific in the popular usage of 'scientific'.

For discussion on LW I think Keith Stanovich criteria's for science are good:

Three of the most important [criteria of science] are that (1) science employs methods of systematic empiricism; (2) it aims for knowledge that is publicly verifiable; and (3) it seeks problems that are empirically solvable and that yield testable theories.

Comment author: Gleb_Tsipursky 19 November 2015 01:00:39AM 3 points [-]

Agreed, good definition of science-backed.