Friday, August 14, 2020

Gell-Mann Amnesia

If the speakers have the knack of sounding plausible, we tend to believe them. Even when we know we shouldn't.

An actor's bread and butter is "sounding plausible." IIRC most cultures don't respect actors very much--I wonder why we do. The risks seem obvious.

My experiences have been that most salesmen have been honest, but they don't always have stellar reputations. And yet people deal with even the crooks.

In recommending his son to a merchant as a valuable salesman, a father does not say he is a nice, moral, upright boy, and goes to Sunday School and is honest, but he says, “This boy is worth his weight in broad pieces of a hundred—for behold, he will cheat whomsoever hath dealings with him, and from the Euxine to the waters of Marmora there abideth not so gifted a liar!”

WRT Biden: I've heard people say that "He's not deteriorating; he has always talked this way." I haven't listened to him, so I can't say for sure, but I suspect his defenders listen for meaning, and if the meaning is the proper shiboleths they assume his wisdom is undiminished. This isn't crazy, but I notice they don't allow Trump any benefit of the doubt.

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