Peter Norvig's new post on reporters, fact-checking, models and data.
All we want are the facts, ma'am.
norvig.com
All we want are the facts, ma'am.
1–10 of 21 posts
Re: All we want are the facts, ma'am.
#2I present to you Chris Anderson, as theorized about by himself:
The way Chris Anderson has traditionally published is unsustainable in the face of new developments,
as outlined in this misleading neon spot-color info-graphic! *(not pictured)*
In the face of such a massive increase in critical attention towards my trite editorial, the way I
have traditionally published cannot continue. Each new dalliance I put on the cover of Wired is now
savaged for it's idiocy by domain experts before it even appears on newsstands!
How am I supposed to get an advance on the book version of my pop-science pablum if I'm not showered
with uncritical adulation? How am I going to debut on the NYT bestseller list in four months if I'm
already discredited?
Clearly, I need to develop a *new kind of* [1] Chris Anderson. A totally new model of exerting my
bloviations on the world. I need to find a way to publish to smaller, more sycophantic audiences in
private at first; gradually sowing my trite theories into the public discourse so that they are not so
easily mocked for what they are.
I need to explore the depths of my own *long tail* -- I need to expose my genius to my *social graph*
first. Publishing straight to the cover of Wired exposes my ideas to public ridicule by practicing
experts -- if I could limit my audience initially to *self-facilitating media nodes* [2] like myself,
I might be able to ride a wave of sycophancy right over any criticism!
I, Chris Anderson, hereby usher in a new age of post-pop-science! Jared Diamond and Malcolm Gladwell
don't stand a chance against my cunning insights into this world of post-hype I herald!
Re: All we want are the facts, ma'am.
#3Whenever I read an article in the newspaper, I have to remind myself to filter it through the lens of all the times I've been misquoted or have caught glaring mistakes in stories about which I have first-hand or subject-matter knowledge.
As much as I depend on the media for information about what's going on in the world, I rarely can point to articles about subjects I know and say they're accurate.
Re: All we want are the facts, ma'am.
#4To be fair, the quote isn't all that wrong. If you know enough to recognize the problems, you probably aren't getting much from the article anyway.
Re: All we want are the facts, ma'am.
#5I love that Sussman story.
In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6.
"What are you doing?", asked Minsky.
"I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe," Sussman replied.
"Why is the net wired randomly?", asked Minsky.
"I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play", Sussman said.
Minsky shut his eyes.
"Why do you close your eyes?", Sussman asked his teacher.
"So that the room will be empty."
At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.
Re: All we want are the facts, ma'am.
#6If you can get ahold of the New Yorker article Norvig cites, I highly recommend it.
Re: All we want are the facts, ma'am.
#7"The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false." -- Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807. ME 11:225 (http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1600.htm)
Re: All we want are the facts, ma'am.
#8Maybe people will take the hint and stop up-voting Wired articles?
Or how about a domain filter in my options?
Re: All we want are the facts, ma'am.
#9I love that Sussman story. In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6. "What are you doing?", asked Minsky. "I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe," Sussman replied. "Why is the net wired randomly?", asked Minsky. "I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play", Sussman said. Minsky shut his eyes. "Why do you close your eyes?", Su…
I love that story too! Can anyone point me to a collection of stories like that? I have read "Hackers..." by Levy and "The Soul of a New Machine" by Kidder.
Re: All we want are the facts, ma'am.
#10I love that Sussman story. In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6. "What are you doing?", asked Minsky. "I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe," Sussman replied. "Why is the net wired randomly?", asked Minsky. "I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play", Sussman said. Minsky shut his eyes. "Why do you close your eyes?", Su…
I love that story too! Can anyone point me to a collection of stories like that? I have read "Hackers..." by Levy and "The Soul of a New Machine" by Kidder.
The Jargon File has three more: http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon_47.html#SEC54