Elo comments on Stupid Questions, December 2015 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: polymathwannabe 01 December 2015 10:40PM

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Comment author: Elo 04 December 2015 12:12:23AM 0 points [-]

I am still confused; maybe can you describe the mechanism by which it would cause the "not helpful" things to happen?

Comment author: philh 04 December 2015 12:54:13AM 1 point [-]

Suppose someone said: "my clothes are cold and wet, so I'm dipping them in warm water so they dry faster". I think I'd have a similar reaction to that. Like sure, warm water evaporates faster, but... really? You think that's going to help?

(If that turns out to work, I will be very annoyed.)

Comment author: philh 04 December 2015 12:45:59AM 0 points [-]

I'm not sure I had any explicit mechanisms in mind. These were gut reactions. But I can try to elaborate on the reactions.

With dizziness: you've spun to get dizzy and now you're spinning more and that's obviously just going to get you more dizzy.

With stitches: the problem is a hole in your skin and you're trying to fix it by adding more holes and running some thread through them? Thread does not belong inside your body!