Mark Zuckerberg responds to critics of his $45B pledge

Re:Mark Zuckerberg responds to critics of his $45B pledge by threatofrain on Friday December 04, 2015 @02:40PM (#10678569)

It irks me that you would rebut this guy with this argument simply because I know that the empiricism strongly leans toward personalities remaining very stable throughout the lifespan, and that changes move together as a population than within-individual. Academics might not have yet built consensus on a general personality theory (Big 5 is more a descriptive research framework than a theory), but there is consensus on personality empiricism.

Surely there is another angle of counter. I don't believe in winning argumentation by any means, especially by scientific disinformation without empirical cause.

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Re:Mark Zuckerberg responds to critics of his $45B pledge by intjk on Friday December 04, 2015 @02:57PM (#10678707)

I think the guy just grew up. People say dumb stuff when they're young. Not much need for empirical backing when the heuristic (in this case: people mature as they grow older) explains it well enough.

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Re:Mark Zuckerberg responds to critics of his $45B pledge by threatofrain on Friday December 04, 2015 @03:03PM (#10678753)

Your narrowly crafted argument is the proper response, but this guy made an empirically testable statement relevant to the sciences. You might not have clicked his profile, but he's also a PhD student of the sciences, meaning he has institutional access.

You won't find adequate empirical backing on personality change over the lifespan, because the ecology of the evidence suggests that personality is stable. Disciplined speech is difficult and worthy.

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Re:Mark Zuckerberg responds to critics of his $45B pledge by Xcelerate on Friday December 04, 2015 @03:15PM (#10678840)

Fair enough. I was just suggesting a possibility.

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