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Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

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Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#51

Post by xprincessxjulzx »

phugoid wrote: post #14

Something I read in Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell shocked me into reconsidering my role as a father. I'm not a big fan of that book in general, but I found a pearl in there. I used to think that I needed to set and enforce hard rules, as if this will teach my kids order. I don't want them to take the easy way out or try to negotiate everything. I thought my approach was a good balance to my wife's, as she doesn't asse…

That's a very interesting observation about parenting. I can completely relate because my grandmother, who was raised by a wealthy, but very stern mother, is totally submissive, and has a "midset of resignation". On the other hand, I've always been able to negotiate with my parents and there was never much enforcement of the rules (I could guilt-trip my mother for anything I wanted--especially with some cold hard logic). I don't think a single person would describe me as having a mindset of resignation.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#52

Post by a-priori »

yan wrote: post #20
a-priori wrote: post #16

I've been reading Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate lately. It has changed my view of the role of consciousness in everyday life. It's also clarified my understanding on various social issues, the relationship with the individual and society, and the evolutionary origins of the emotions. I'm about 2/3 of the way through.

Steven Pinker is amazing. From what I've read from his other articles, books, etc, it's always been enlightening. He also does a beautiful job communicating his ideas.

I agree, his writings are eye-opening. I know a bit too much about neuroscience, I think, so sometimes when he ventures that way in The Blank Slate I'm unconvinced, but the core of his arguments always stand.

My first encounter with his works was The Language Instinct, which was required reading for a course I took on psycholinguistics. If that were more recent, I would have mentioned it in my initial post, because that book completely changed my understanding of human language.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#53

Post by die_sekte »

protomyth wrote: post #38
pasbesoin wrote: post #33

Gun control in the U.S.. I used to be more in favor, with the goal of a safer society as well as one less inclined to the isolation of sub-populations. Now, I'm considering widespread ownership more in terms of a last bulwark against one or another form of totalitarian rule. Perhaps it is a limiting factor against pushing the population too far. You might call this a knee-jerk reaction; nonetheless, it's on my mind.…

About 15 years ago, I was at a state sponsored meeting in Minot ND. A group the state hired was there telling us about risk factors in the community. The group hired was from the west coast and all the research they cited was studies done in low income urban areas. They pointed out guns were a big risk factor. The head of one of the local social service programs took exception to this. He asked how many people in the…

I read somewhere that total crime rates in Switzerland are comparable to other European countries' rates, but that Switzerland has higher gun crime rates compared to other European countries' rates.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#55

Post by snprbob86 »

I used vim to edit a config file here or there for four years of college. I always hated it. I just couldn't wrap my head around command vs insert mode. Since I never edited more than a few lines at a time, I never really learned it. I thought it was just a stupid idea. Then, about 9 months ago, it clicked. I started loving it. Now, you couldn't pry it from my cold, dead, Python editing fingers. (Although, I still contest that IDEA/Resharper are far superior for Java/C#)

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#56

Post by chasingsparks »

chasingsparks wrote: post #11

PHP. It is neither useless nor used only by the contemporary version of AOL proggie coders. For many things, it really makes life easier (e.g. deployment via SCP).

I was up voted more than I thought. I just wrote a blog post follow up.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=904018

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#57

Post by araneae »

Alex3917 wrote: post #50
araneae wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The feeling of "spirituality" is certainly universal; after all, so many people have it that it would be absurd to call it purely a cultural construct. However, as far as we can tell, the generation of these feelings is not associated with any external sensor, the way that the experience of seeing is connected with your eyeballs. In all probability, the feeling of religiosity is mind-bound phenomena, much like love a…

"In all probability, the feeling of religiosity is mind-bound phenomena, not capable of detecting any real external phenomena." That's an interesting use of the word probability. Can you justify that position using arguments qualitatively different than those used to justify the opposite position? (That the full-blown mystic experience is qualitatively different than anything that science has ever explained before or…

(tl;dr Science can explain these experiences, but people just don't find the explanations satisfying.)

Many folks, religious or not, believe that many powerful experiences (like love or religion) aren't scientifically explainable. However, I think it's because such explanations aren't emotionally satisfying. Such explanations are usually either proximate (i.e. mechanistic) or ultimate (evolutionary.) and people just don't like that.

To use love as an example:

Proximate explanation: When two individuals have different MHC profiles, they are more likely to smell good and be attracted to each other. This attraction can sometimes lead to sex. After orgasm, the hormone vasopressin is released which causes a warm fuzzing feeling in both partners. After repeated instances of sex, there is a learned association of this nice feeling and being with the other person leading them to hang out with each other a lot.

Ultimate explanation: individuals which pair bond, resulting in biparental care, produce offspring which are more likely to survive to the next generation than those which do not.

But no one likes to think about that when they're snuggling up to their mate.

"Religiosity" isn't so cut and dry as love. The proximate explanation of spirituality is fairly well established by science i.e. religious experiences can be induced artificially with drugs (psychobilin) or electrical stimulation of the brain. The ultimate explanation I think is less convincing than for love. Most evolutionary psychologists consider religion a byproduct of adaptive psychological traits, such as superstitiousness (associating negative events with some cause- it's more costly to fail to learn what causes negative events than to associate unrelated events) and agency (a similar explanation- it's adaptive to assume that most things are caused be agents, i.e. a rustle in the leaves is a hungry predator, not the wind. If we assume it's the wind and it isn't, we're in trouble, but not if it's the other way around.)

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#58

Post by berntb »

Alex3917 wrote: post #21
booksnarf wrote: post #17

Religion. I was born & raised a devout Baptist Christian (and creationist). But in the past 5 months, I've read about 50 books and hundreds of web pages and decided that agnostic atheism [1] and evolution make more sense. Hopefully I didn't just devolve this into a religion argument... [1] "Agnostic atheist" == I can't say for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I will live my life on the assumption he is…

Same here, only the other way. After being an atheist my entire life, I got more interested in religion over the past few months. After listening to dozens of hours worth of podcasts, and reading a few books and academic journal articles, I've decided that there is such a thing as a "primary religious experience." Furthermore, it's pretty clear that while academia can verify that this experience exists, science can't…

I buy the existence of religious emotions, for instance a sense of wonder and awe when confronted with astronomy or a newborn child.

My problem isn't with religious education (I didn't get one).

My problem is belief in any ideology. Political or religious.

That is, people having certain opinions about how the world is built from internal emotional experiences. Especially when they know that lots of other people have internal emotional experiences which says they are wrong.

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#59

Post by anonymousDan »

rrhyne wrote: post #49

Obama. He talked change and kept all the same financial advisers of the prior administrations.

What about all those paycuts for bankers though? I can't imagine those happening under Bush or McCain. Or are they just cosmetic (I'm not American and not overly familiar with the details)?

Re: Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?

#60

Post by xayide »

jacobolus wrote: post #24
xayide wrote: post #5

Seat belt laws. For years, my inner Libertarian would cringe at the idea that the government could force someone to do something they didn't want to when it was their own life at risk. But then my inner Republican realized that if I were to be at fault in an accident, I would be financially and possibly criminally liable for a much steeper offense if the other party wasn't buckled up.

Not to sound harsh, but your logic here epitomizes the stereotype of conservative as uncaring/greedy/self-absorbed. Instead of being concerned that people will die , your reasons for supporting seat belt laws is that it reduces your liability . Maybe you actually have some concern for human life, and don't actually intend to leave that impression; if not, it's worth considering how you present your argument, because…

It's more that I don't feel it's the government's place to tell people that they must wear a seat belt. It's their place to hold car manufacturers to safety standards that make sure their seat belts are effective and safe. It's their place to make it publicly known that wearing a seat belt greatly reduces your risk of injury or death in a collision. Beyond that, I feel very strongly that it is personal responsibility and choice.

When I realized that allowing this freedom could possibly encroach on my freedoms, it became a different issue. And I changed my mind.

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