Re:“American Scientist” Understands Nothing about the Travel...
by mikestew on Tuesday April 26, 2016 @04:00PM
(#11575104)
Yeah, I don't know what the term is, either. But I learned the lesson early on. Even amongst those in the know, reserve accepting the words as truth as even knowledge people don't know when to quit when they reach the perimeter of their ignorance.
Take a most recent example that has nothing to do the topic at hand: VW Vanagon camper vans. We took our '81 Westy to a campout that was a bunch of VW Westfalia camper vans (with the cute pop-top tents on the roof, for the uninitiated). Think these folks can bore you with the intimate details of Westies you never knew you didn't care about? Ohhhhh, yeah. These folks know their Westies, and they'll make you wish you never asked. A couple of ladies are admiring ours (as well they should, as it's in excellent shape). They were debating whether the rear air intakes should be metal or plastic. They were absolutely sure that an early Vanagon such as ours should have metal. They were mostly right. Except for the part where VW put out a diesel version in the middle of the '81 model year, at which time VW switched to plastic air intakes for all models.
My point? Oh, I've got one, bear with me. The point is that even when knowledgable people get most of the details right, don't assume that every single detail is correct. In the example of the article, they got most of the way there and then...didn't know when to quit. It seems to me that they started the article with a decent, but not great, grasp of the topic. When they hit the parts that they were a little fuzzy on, they trudged on regardless, got it wrong, and now some question everything they've published. The authors were knowledgable, but not experts, but that didn't stop them from writing like they are experts. Or something something Dunning-Kruger, I'm not sure.
Take a most recent example that has nothing to do the topic at hand: VW Vanagon camper vans. We took our '81 Westy to a campout that was a bunch of VW Westfalia camper vans (with the cute pop-top tents on the roof, for the uninitiated). Think these folks can bore you with the intimate details of Westies you never knew you didn't care about? Ohhhhh, yeah. These folks know their Westies, and they'll make you wish you never asked. A couple of ladies are admiring ours (as well they should, as it's in excellent shape). They were debating whether the rear air intakes should be metal or plastic. They were absolutely sure that an early Vanagon such as ours should have metal. They were mostly right. Except for the part where VW put out a diesel version in the middle of the '81 model year, at which time VW switched to plastic air intakes for all models.
My point? Oh, I've got one, bear with me. The point is that even when knowledgable people get most of the details right, don't assume that every single detail is correct. In the example of the article, they got most of the way there and then...didn't know when to quit. It seems to me that they started the article with a decent, but not great, grasp of the topic. When they hit the parts that they were a little fuzzy on, they trudged on regardless, got it wrong, and now some question everything they've published. The authors were knowledgable, but not experts, but that didn't stop them from writing like they are experts. Or something something Dunning-Kruger, I'm not sure.