Link tags: reason

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đź’ˇ David Deutsch: Optimism, Pessimism and Cynicism

Not only was fire always dangerous as well as beneficial, so was the wheel. A spear could injure or kill your friends, not only your dinner. With clothes came not only protection but also body lice. With farming came not only a more reliable food supply but also hard, repetitive work – and plunder by hungry bandits.

Every solution creates new problems. But they can be better problems. Lesser evils. More and greater delights.

That’s what progress is. That is what is most visible today. And that is what cynicism must therefore besmirch, obfuscate and argue away if it is to make itself, and pessimism, superficially plausible.

Swimming in Complexity – James Box at UX Brighton 2017 - YouTube

Boxman’s talk about complexity, reasoning, philosophy, and design is soooo good!

Swimming in Complexity – James Box at UX Brighton 2017

Developer Fallacies | HeydonWorks

Some of the explanations get a little ranty, but Heydon’s collection of observed fallacies rings true:

  • The gospel fallacy
  • The Luddite fallacy
  • The scale fallacy
  • The chocolate fireguard fallacy
  • The pull request fallacy
  • The ‘made at Facebook’ fallacy
  • The Bob the Builder fallacy
  • The real world fallacy
  • The Daphne and Celeste fallacy

I’ve definitely had the Luddite fallacy and the scale fallacy thrown in my face as QEDs.

The ‘made at Facebook’ fallacy is pretty much identical to what I’ve been calling the fallacy of assumed competency: copying something that large corporation X is doing just because large corporation X is doing it.

A Holiday Message from Ricky Gervais: Why I’m An Atheist - Speakeasy - WSJ

A great piece of reasoned explanation by Ricky Gervais.

Cleverest crows opt for two tools

Crows is smart. And yes, I am using the "Bookmark this..." link at the end of the article.