“What did we do before Google?”
“We wondered about stupid stuff all day until we forgot about it.”
The Fine Art of Bullshit, Killed by Google
101–110 of 122 posts
Re: The Fine Art of Bullshit, Killed by Google
#102"Where can I find a women's shelter?"
"Is it normal to be attracted to other boys?"
"Can I claim food stamps?"
"Is my employer allowed to deduct breakages from my pay?"
"How much is cassava selling for in Lagos?"
Knowledge changes lives. As technologists, we are at the forefront of a revolution that has the potential to banish ignorance forever, for everyone. We have a basic moral duty to honour that responsibility, to recognise the real risks of what we are doing, and to work for the benefit of humanity.
The fun of bullshitting is something I am happy to accept as a casualty of war. Frankly, I think it's rather bourgeois to gripe about it.
I'm far more concerned about personalised search results inadvertently working to intellectually ghettoise us and reinforce prejudices. I'm concerned about the effect that paywalled academic journals might be having on the spread of pseudoscience. I'm concerned that IT systems are being designed predominantly by middle-class Americans in liberal cities, who are often ignorant of how their design decisions might affect people who are living in more repressive environments.
Bullshit should die unmourned, because we've got more important things to worry about.
Re: The Fine Art of Bullshit, Killed by Google
#103I found myself thinking "the fine art of bullshit, as told by a bullshitter" while reading this article. I was annoyed because there is no subheading or useful intro that tells me what this is about so i can decide if I want to read it or not. Just a vague title and a vague picture. The writer might think this is clever -- I think its misplaced.
Re: The Fine Art of Bullshit, Killed by Google
#104The story posted in the article provides a romanticized illustration of how finding knowledge in a world without easy access to it can produce an adventure. (I like that it doesn't directly say which of the 1994 or 2014 versions was better , though there's sure an implication from how they're painted.) On the other hand, access to information can produce an adventure, as well; so can many other things. In the end, th…
This. Hypotheticals, not questions of fact, make conversational adventures.
Re: The Fine Art of Bullshit, Killed by Google
#105I once tried to find out on Wikipedia whether goldfish really have ten second attention spans. I learned that in Nix vs. Heddon the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit.
Would you please go back and find out about the goldfish? I'm curious, but fear I'd never come back if I went to look for myself.
Re: The Fine Art of Bullshit, Killed by Google
#106"Where can I find a women's shelter?" "Is it normal to be attracted to other boys?" "Can I claim food stamps?" "Is my employer allowed to deduct breakages from my pay?" "How much is cassava selling for in Lagos?" Knowledge changes lives. As technologists, we are at the forefront of a revolution that has the potential to banish ignorance forever, for everyone. We have a basic moral duty to honour that responsibility,…
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Re: The Fine Art of Bullshit, Killed by Google
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
You learn a lot while bullshitting, but probably not about what you're talking about. Like in programming: a lot of "functions" don't return anything, they're ran for side-effects.
I wish you would go into details rather than give an absolutely meaningless analogy.
You learn about the people that you're bullshitting with. We're social animals, we live in groups, we solve problems in groups, we tackle adversity as groups. Our lives depend on our abilities to function within groups.
Bullshitting is a type of play. Play is important for developing as an individual and for a group developing a shared identity.
Re: The Fine Art of Bullshit, Killed by Google
#108I mostly see upsides. Instead of uncertainty about random trivia, the conversation can be based on certainty about amazing trivia.
Did you know that early South-Americans used the shells of giant turtle-like mammals as houses? Isn't that crazy? Here, check out a picture of one. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Glyptodon...
Or as xkcd put it, you are one of the lucky 10,000! http://xkcd.com/1053/
Re: The Fine Art of Bullshit, Killed by Google
#109"Where can I find a women's shelter?" "Is it normal to be attracted to other boys?" "Can I claim food stamps?" "Is my employer allowed to deduct breakages from my pay?" "How much is cassava selling for in Lagos?" Knowledge changes lives. As technologists, we are at the forefront of a revolution that has the potential to banish ignorance forever, for everyone. We have a basic moral duty to honour that responsibility,…
It's possible to both lament the loss of bullshitting, and the interaction it generates, while also appreciating the significant improvements technology has brought.
Re: The Fine Art of Bullshit, Killed by Google
#110I once tried to find out on Wikipedia whether goldfish really have ten second attention spans. I learned that in Nix vs. Heddon the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit.
Would you please go back and find out about the goldfish? I'm curious, but fear I'd never come back if I went to look for myself.
Here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfish#Intelligence