I feel the same way. But we probably all do that sometimes. Stranger has the uncanny ability to say what I meant to say more eloquently and convincingly than I could say it, so I generally have high confidence in all the posts where he agrees with me…
But in areas where I have a fair bit of knowledge, sometimes I think, “Well, that’s not wrong, exactly, but it’s a bit of an oversimplification.” But what else could you expect from someone with a super high degree of general knowledge?
I have an uncle like this. Easily the smartest person I know. At least once every time I see him, I think, “Jesus, it’s a good thing I agree with you, because you would be a massive pain in the ass if I didn’t.” He went through a Libertarian phase. You can imagine.
You underestimate yourself and IMHO
that is an inaccurate statement.
Self awareness. Knowing enough to know that they are not sure. Calibrated self doubt. I have had the great pleasure of being around some very intelligent people and mostly the most intelligent have the self confidence to share when they are not so sure about what they know. As a result when they say they know something is the case I can accept it and ask only to figure out what I had missed or was ignorant of.
Indeed. In the past I’ve had the privilege of speaking with some very bright researchers at places like the Palo Alto Research Center back when it was Xerox PARC, at the Stanford AI Lab (SAIL), at MIT, and at other notable venues, and one of the hallmarks of most of these people is that they treat others as equals, listen to what they have to say and react to questions and criticism with informative responses rather than raging hostility. There are of course exceptions because we’re dealing with humans, but a respectful attitude is the norm.
My take on the brouhaha in question is that I agree that @Chronos came across as being fairly snarky in his reply in the linked thread (which he seems to be in the habit of doing, especially when it comes to @Stranger_On_A_Train).
And @Stranger_On_A_Train is coming across a little thin-skinned (which may well be understandable if @Chronos is always nitpicking him).
I agree with this, minus the “very” in the third sentence—and would add that both posters are not just valuable members of the this board, but extremely valuable members.
…and I hope both posters come away from this realizing that a lot of people do greatly value them and their contributions to the board.
I wonder if this dispute is a side effect of positions about Elon Musk. Stranger is quite hostile and skeptical toward Musk, while Chronos seems an uncritical apologist. I recall seeing some thorny exchanges between them on that subject in the past.
Musk fans tend to be every bit as as sensitive, irritable, and grudge-holding as Musk himself, so I wonder if that’s where some of the smoldering animus comes from.
