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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?

#61

Post by protomyth »

die_sekte wrote: post #53
protomyth wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I do believe you are correct (I remember the same thing). People use what they have, but being dead from a knife is still dead. I find the rate of various crimes important as opposed to the tools used. Tools can be substituted.

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

#62

Post by btilly »

req2 wrote: post #45
btilly wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience and from statistics I have seen there is little correlation between intelligence and religious inclination. For example Donald Knuth is strongly religious. (Evidence: http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/things.html . ) But can anyone honestly deny his intelligence? That is not to say that there is no correlation. In general educated people are more likely to be exposed to thoughtful commentary…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence A modicum of research reveals that 'The authors reported a correlation of 0.60 between atheism rates and level of intelligence, which is “highly statistically significant.”'

Yes, it is statistically significant. But it can't tell the difference between educated people being more often exposed to the ideas of atheism, and being more likely to find them convincing.

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

#63

Post by DanielBMarkham »

HistoryInAction wrote: post #25
ryandvm wrote: post #2

The best way to implement health care in the United States. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200909/health-care

I enjoy Ezra Klein as a left-perspective, wonky (politically technical, if you're not familiar with the term) writer who has a special focus on the intricacies of health care policy. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/

Trivia note: "wonk" is a fairly new word, having been coined in the last decade or two if I remember correctly.

It used to stand for WithOut Normal Knowledge, meaning people who had a lot of ideas but not much practical experience. I think lately the definition has broadened to mean just intricately technical.

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

#64

Post by [deleted] »

araneae wrote: post #57
Alex3917 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

[deleted]

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

#65

Post by kingnothing »

tel wrote: post #39

My desire to become a doctor. As a college undergraduate in a biomedical engineering major there's a lot of contact and allure toward that field, but after extensive shadowing experience in the ER I realized that while I undeniably admire those who can become doctors, there is absolutely something missing, for me, in that profession: The ability to innovate, build, create, explore. An MD's life is more oriented towar…

Have you considered medical research?

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

#66

Post by [deleted] »

berntb wrote: post #58
Alex3917 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[deleted]

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

#67

Post by brown9-2 »

anonymousDan wrote: post #59
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)?

Cosmetic in that they only affect a handful of banks, and none of the major profit-winners such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, etc.

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

#68

Post by yan »

a-priori wrote: post #52
yan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Some of his writings is how I'm getting my introduction to neuroscience. Also, following stuff like the brain science podcast and reading any popular science books dedicated to it. I'd love to get more in depth, but currently lack direction.

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

#69

Post by RiderOfGiraffes »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #40
RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #30

Whether I really belong here. I used to think it was a given, now I'm really not sure. So much stuff I'm interested in gets completely ignored, and I'm pretty sure it's been seen. There's the occasional zinger, but I no longer think I'm a good match for this community.

That's an interesting frame to the question -- whether you are a good match for the community. Wouldn't the question work better the other way around -- Whether the community was a good match for you or not? You would judge the answer based on how much the community helped you reach your goals. Whereas with the other question you're always looking outward for somebody else to validate you (which seems prone to gettin…

Being a match is close to symmetrical, but "usefulness" perhaps isn't. I get a great deal from this site and the musings of many of its participants. It's only reasonable that I should try to give something back, but repeatedly things I think are interesting get absolutely no response.

With me getting a great deal out, but the community not getting much back, are we therefore a good match?

Perhaps that's not really the question, but I've come to realise that stuff I think is cool, enlightening or simply interesting, generally get very little response.

Unless people just don't see them.

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

#70

Post by RK »

tel wrote: post #39

My desire to become a doctor. As a college undergraduate in a biomedical engineering major there's a lot of contact and allure toward that field, but after extensive shadowing experience in the ER I realized that while I undeniably admire those who can become doctors, there is absolutely something missing, for me, in that profession: The ability to innovate, build, create, explore. An MD's life is more oriented towar…

Consider MD/PhD. The MD part of the degree gets you through a ton of doors that would otherwise be closed or incredibly difficult to open (unfortunately). It would also allow you to build products or perform research and actually be on the clinical side of things when it comes to testing (if you care).
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