What is Digg?75 Comments
- BadAstronomer, on 05/22/2008, -6/+82I left this comment on the linked post:
Part of science is making mistakes. You learn from them.
Part of science -- an important one -- is admitting them, which is why I wrote that post. I'll add that not everyone who comments is a fan. I get my share of people attacking me in the comments, sometimes fairly, sometimes not, sometimes rather viciously.
I don't have too much issue with people who make mistakes that are in the category I did. It was just a dumb mistake, and they happen. I have a problem with repeat offenders, over time, who don't own up. I can name a dozen (heh, a hundred) politicians and pseudoscientists who fit that category! - casspa, on 05/22/2008, -2/+53Mstiakes are jsut prat of lfie
- Surferess, on 05/22/2008, -2/+25A wise man once said "When you make a mistake, don't look back at it long. Take the reason of the thing into your mind and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power."
- inactive, on 05/22/2008, -1/+22Sometimes people's egos get too big and they begin to think they're infallible. That's when it becomes a problem.
- ubernoggin, on 05/22/2008, -0/+15So Titan's atmosphere isn't methane? What Titan needs, to paraphrase Christopher Walken, is more cowfarts.
- greenroom628, on 05/22/2008, -0/+14wait...titan has an atmosphere?
- BigManOnCampus, on 05/22/2008, -0/+13What?
- gutistg, on 05/22/2008, -0/+9Your example was longwinded, pointless, unimaginative, and just didn't make any sense.
That said; I understand what you're saying, and agree. - inactive, on 05/22/2008, -0/+8The point is about mistakes, and it's a good one. But Titan is a totally cool place where it RAINS methane -- snows really -- and there are lakes of the stuff that the Huygens probe found as it parachuted through the atmosphere. What a kickin' place. Might even be life there, with all those pre-organic molecules floating around ...
- GeekyGerge, on 05/22/2008, -4/+12*is
- Alreadyinuse99, on 05/22/2008, -2/+10So, did you get banned for your disagreement or for things like calling someone an ass or a narrow minded prick?
- foofoobee, on 05/22/2008, -2/+9Kudos for the stance you have taken on this. Many "scientists" often forget this point about making mistakes and then amending earlier positions.
- tokipost, on 05/22/2008, -0/+7lol
- dickkennedy, on 05/22/2008, -0/+6The internet makes our mistakes very public. But it also gives us a fantastic medium for correcting them.
- ColonelTribune, on 05/22/2008, -1/+6Man, you really dug (ha) that quote out, Surferess. Good one!
- Necoras, on 05/22/2008, -1/+6As Alreadyinuse99 alluded to, he bans people for using language like you. I've seen any number of people leave pretty stupid comments on Phil's blog, and they stay there as part of the discussion. Phil's more than willing to allow people he disagrees with their place, just not rude and offensive people.
- ColorBlind, on 05/22/2008, -3/+8Funny, I still read this just fine. I believe there was a study done showing "if you use the correct first and last letter of a word, your reader will still understand it quite efficiently"
- nhc87, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4Nice :)
- Vocklery, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4Mistakes are more of being human than being of science. The only life long teachers we will ever have includes our mistakes, should we be willing to learn from them.
I do have a theory about the intolerance I see some have for the mistakes of others. It implies a higher standard attained by those who habitually correct others (spelling nazis, for example), which often momentarily satisfies a person's need to exhibit that they are "good enough" by implying they are indeed superior than those they have the occasion to correct. Oh well. If that is what a person needs to get them through the day emotionally intact, it's only because they are also human. We all have our quirks.
As a musician, I learned what to do with mistakes. Laugh at them if I can, but definitely smile. Often, no one else is really aware of the "mistake" unless I ,or a rude band member, point it out to the audience. After that, I accept the mistake, so that I might see if the "mistake" might actually have application in other ways. Lastly, I let it go. The more time I dwell on an error that I cannot take back, The less attention and intellect I can devote to that I still need to properly finish the performance., and the more prone I will be to another mistake as a result. If I get stuck on the mistake as I used to, I my anxiety will turn the snowball into an avalanche, and what abilities I did have would crumble along with my confidence. - FecalHurler, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4There are few mistakes in life that one can't recover from. This certainly isn't one of them..
- DiggzDE, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4Why the ***** do I care about science? Science has never done anything for me....
- geogeer, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4I think that the tendency to expect perfection is exasperated by the scientific computerized era in which we live. We live in an age where everyone and everything should be done with a very high level of accuracy. We all understand mistakes, but are increasingly less tolerant of them because we are creating societies with ever greater efficiencies. As efficiencies increase, error tolerances generally decrease.
- VitriolAndAngst, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3Throwing berries at a dinosaur is not a MISTAKE, it is retarded. The vegetarian dinosaurs will keep coming to your cave door and begging, and the meat eating dinosaurs will consider it an hors deuvres (sp). A mistake might be, throwing the spear with the dull end first. I think your example needs some work. Again, here is an example of a mistake versus an error; Remembering wrongly that Titan is mostly methane; mistake. Throwing berries at Titan at the cost of millions of dollars in propulsion and research. Colossal error in judgement. Your head has to be screwed on incorrectly.
Furthermore, did we ever meet dinosaurs? That seems to be an error based upon watching the Flintstones. Now THAT is a mistake, bordering on total confusion. In science, you might discover fossil evidence of the two existing or not existing at the same time -- but if you don't know that fossils are in the ground, and start looking for them in your pudding, that is a great example of being clueless, and requiring someone on digg to smite you down.
I'm sure this point I'm making could be shorter. Other than that, I stand by my assertions. - inactive, on 05/22/2008, -4/+7Earth's atmosphere is 79% nitrogen, 20% oxygen, only about 1% other gases.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_atmosphere
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/earth/atmo ... - staticneuron, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3What you have done..... I have visualy acertained.
- AmaDaden, on 05/22/2008, -1/+4Hey that's HER mistake for not being able to kill a dinosaur with berries.
- miauka, on 05/22/2008, -0/+3Nice post about mistakes and why to accept them in our life; a bit of astronomy and grammar too
- elipabst, on 05/22/2008, -2/+5Posting on your blog is not science. His blog entries are not meticulously peer-reviewed by experts in the field before they can be posted. If this was an article in the journal Science that had somehow slipped through and got published and became a critical part of our fundamental knowledge of the moon, then I could see making that statement. I'm still trying to figure out why it's apparently such a big deal when this guy has a brain-fart in one of his blog posts and everyone is like...OMG EVEN TEH SCIENCTISTS ARE WRONG!!!
- icedevil6, on 05/30/2008, -0/+2Yeah, well ***** you too! And stay the ***** out of my iGoogles!
- sonnygill, on 05/22/2008, -1/+3You learn something new everyday!
- inactive, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2Yeah interesting post...its interesting how many things they get wrong...
- inactive, on 05/22/2008, -2/+4=)
- tony23, on 05/23/2008, -0/+2I'm lying.
- inactive, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2I believe that has been posted on the internet ten thousand times.
- jcweezy, on 05/22/2008, -1/+3wow very interesting.
- VitriolAndAngst, on 05/22/2008, -2/+4I think the viciousness of attacks towards mistakes that you might find on Digg are;
1) When you think someone is being willfully ignorant or disingenuous (I'm guilty of getting annoyed at this).
2) When you want to destroy someone's argument, by pointing out the small mistake, and thereby discount the entire premise (sort of a straw man argument --- but a lot of people indulge in this and its probably more about WINNING as the motivation).
3) The anonymity of the net, makes it hard for people to look at others as persons. Most people, would not, make these harsh statements in person to someone they merely differ with on an opinion.
From reading the article, it seems that this is more to do with online blogs, so Digg seems a great example.
I'm ready for better discourse on Digg, and I try NOT to indulge in pointing out tiny errors to win an argument. Being harsher on a blog is human nature -- but, again I try. But, on there are so many topics in science, philosophy, environment and the like that have become political -- which didn't used to be the case. I used to pull punches a few years back on these topics, and ask people to settle down. But it seemed, people just wanted to beat the other team. And I often didn't see how someone could not see my point of view. Things like arguments of WMD's -- when so many independent sources said there were none in Iraq, and if the US were invading, why would Saddam save them for a rainy day? You use whatever you got when you are fighting for survival -- or you would never use them. Right? The idea that some narcissistic dictator would send such a thing to another country is farcical at best.
It just seems to me, that there are people who are pushing an agenda and a belief system today, that are just using the facts as a hammer. Not really caring about proof, other than to find a hole that the hammer can smash through.
Are these people wanting to just create an argument? Do they have no friends? Are there really so many non-rational folks? Are they getting paid? I don't know. I just thought as a kid, you could give someone better information and they would say; "Yeah, that makes sense."
As long as the atmosphere of Titan, doesn't effect the profits of a company, hurt someone's religious doctrine, or change public perception towards a candidate -- hey, I think people can be civil. What is that, 1 out of 10 stories on Digg? - redxxx, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2it's almost as if he wants teachers and students to read his blog.
- EarlOfLade, on 05/22/2008, -1/+3Show me one who claim to never be mistaken and I'll show you a liar!
It is not the mistakes that causes problems, but the failure to admit and correct them. - Huangism, on 05/22/2008, -0/+2o good for you, here is a cookie
- inactive, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1Even people with 80 pt IQs know that no one is smarter than them except god.
...lol - benjorino, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1*Mind asplodes*
- kerzhaw, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1Making a mistake in business is the ultimate sin, apparently.
- inactive, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1Mistakes are one thing, closed minds are quite another.
The unwillingness of scientists in general to reexamine the status quo or worse adopt the status quo without any real examination is widespread and growing. The current state of affairs regarding man made global warming is my favorite example of this problem. I place it right along side such movements as eugenics, where a grain of science is combined with a heavy dose of politics to produces a festering cancer in the brain of humanity. - Huangism, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1you make a mistake you are fired! every knows there are no other planets other than earth, everything you see in the sky is just a elusion of god
- spwpi10, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1There's plenty of planets out there, it would be awesome to incinerate one of them.
- fani, on 05/22/2008, -2/+3Well said, badastronomer. It takes courage to admit your mistakes and correct it in the face of stubborn critics and I am glad that you have the right stance on this issue.
Good work on the badastronomy.com btw, its always a good read for me. - sepllcehck, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1I agree.
- VitriolAndAngst, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1I don't think it has anything to do with society trying to be efficient.
Yes, we can google or go on Wikipedia to get some facts right -- but we are commenting on a lot more ideas. We don't spend the time to get facts right, and are probably more error prone as a result -- just because of the volume, and the lack of a downside to making a public ass of yourself.
Because of course, when we get it wrong, it's just on a blog.
I think it is the anonymity and the lack of face-to-face interaction. I've seen very nice people driving cars, swear like a sailor and threaten to tare someone's head off for cutting them off in traffic. Seems to be the same mechanism's of depersonalization at work. I guess having a two ton vehicle at your whim is part of that as well. - gaffer13, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1Maybe the only mistake is not making any mistakes...
- inactive, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1Mistakes are one thing, closed minds are quite another.
The unwillingness of scientists in general to reexamine the status quo or worse adopt the status quo without any real examination is widespread and growing. The current state of affairs regarding man made global warming is my favorite example of this problem. I place it right along side such movements as eugenics, where a grain of science is combined with a heavy dose of politics to produces a festering cancer in the brain of humanity. -
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