In some scientific papers, words expressing uncertainty have decreased

Re:In some scientific papers, words expressing uncertainty h... by amarcheschi on Monday October 28, 2024 @05:10AM (#41969088)

One of my professor at uni (he managed to talk to Bill gates to get Microsoft to fund his startup, which is now an established research center) told us that if we don't know something, being honest and saying you don't know it is usually a good sign. Be it at an oral exam, be it when you're answering question at a startup pitch (...)

I really appreciated when a professor, when asked with a question he doesn't know, stops trying to answer and says something in the lines of "I actually don't know the exact answer, I'll try to find and answer and tell you next lesson"

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Re:In some scientific papers, words expressing uncertainty h... by gwervc on Monday October 28, 2024 @11:12AM (#41971843)

In a way the school system teach people to fear not knowing something, because at an exam it mean getting a bad grade. At work, it is also often frown upon. This is indeed a problem in science since the goal is precisely to find more about unknowns.

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Re:In some scientific papers, words expressing uncertainty h... by amarcheschi on Monday October 28, 2024 @06:57PM (#41977431)

I had another enlightened professor that also founded a startup that talked about how much is it frowned upon to admit to be wrong at work. Bear in mind in his opinion this is especially true for Italian workplaces, but I can imagine it can be somewhat true for other places as well. Knowing why things went wrong is much more useful than knowing who did it and pointing fingers to him/her

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