News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:On Intellectual Dishonesty by cma on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @11:47AM (#3352487)
Feynman: I would like to add something that's not essential to the science, but something I kind of believe, which is that you should not fool the laymen when you're talking as a scientist. . . . I'm talking about a specific, extra type of integrity that is not lying, but bending over backwards to show how you're maybe wrong, [an integrity] that you ought to have when acting as a scientist. And this is our responsibility as scientists, certainly to other scientists, and I think to laymen.
Re:On Intellectual Dishonesty by MichaelGagnon on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @12:24PM (#3352651)
And from the HN article "intellectual honesty requires bending-over-backwards to provide any evidence that you might be wrong."

The article is so close to a direct Feynman quote that it makes me wonder if the author was subconsciously plagiarizing Feynman. Normally, I wouldn't mind (subconscious plagiarism is everywhere). But in an article about intellectual honesty I would expect the author to "bend over backwards" to identify and declare potential sources of plagiarism. ;-)

Re:On Intellectual Dishonesty by cma on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @01:17PM (#3352917)
Yep, I read it and immediately felt that I had read that same phrase somewhere else.
Re:On Intellectual Dishonesty by wnight on Thursday December 15, 2011 @03:33PM (#3357801)
I don't credit the creators of fire, and indoor heating, every time I turn the thermostat up. I similarly see no reason to try to credit the "original" speaker or author unless I'm using a sizable chunk of their work verbatim.

Especially as while Feynman said that I highly doubt he was the first to think it. He was, very likely, merely distilling things he'd heard before much as the current author was.

Re:On Intellectual Dishonesty by anothermachine on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @03:52PM (#3353537)
I also instantly thought of this when I read Aaron's post. It is a bit dishonest not to credit this famous promulgator of the idea.

more from Feynman, via

"Cargo Cult Science", adapted from a commencement address given at Caltech (1974)

quoted at https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman

There is one feature I notice that is generally missing in "cargo cult science." It's a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty — a kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you're doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid — not only what you think is right about it; other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you've eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked — to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated.

Details that could throw doubt on your interpretation must be given, if you know them. You must do the best you can — if you know anything at all wrong, or possibly wrong — to explain it. If you make a theory, for example, and advertise it, or put it out, then you must also put down all the facts that disagree with it, as well as those that agree with it...

In summary, the idea is to try to give all of the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction or another.