Path: ...!Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-4.nntp.ord.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2024 19:10:24 +0000 From: Rich Ulrich Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english Subject: Re: PTD was the most-respected of the AUE regulars ... Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2024 15:10:24 -0400 Message-ID: <895daj58pqdi5h1dfrfrhqj660j5eps9h4@4ax.com> References: User-Agent: ForteAgent/8.00.32.1272 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Lines: 75 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-B3V8u8fP1Huw6RnrONu5pNho65Hv0l9f14+QjK4WG3iBemNGvilZHAk++ygj/sprLLvN7BpxtuHRiiv!Ne7JGYpRgxqpB/IpKOefU8guCayqlLIlJF3hSm8f3EKPLTtBjgzvpYz1uMiPZZESLHgJXrs= X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 Bytes: 4575 On Sun, 28 Jul 2024 14:57:29 +0100, Hibou wrote: >Le 28/07/2024 à 10:57, occam a écrit : >> On 27/07/2024 18:52, Rich Ulrich wrote: >>> Peter Moylan wrote: >>>> On 27/07/24 20:32, Steve Hayes wrote: >>>>> >>>>> [PTD] would pronounce that something someone else had said was >>>>> wrong, when it wasn't and continue to insist on it even when several >>>>> people had produced evbidence that it was true. >>>> >>>> The Australian coat of arms shows a kangaroo and an emu holding a >>>> shield. These two animals have something in common: they cannot walk >>>> backwards. Their anatomy does not allow it. >>>> >>>> That was PTD's problem. When caught in an error, he was completely >>>> incapable of backing out. His only option was to dig a deeper hole. >>>> >>>> He's the only person I've encountered with such a severe form of this >>>> disability. Some others came close, but they got out of the impasse by >>>> responding with a non sequitur. >>> >>> Anecdote: The great mathmetician/statistician Karl Pearson was >>> also the first editor of Biometrika (for 35 years). He described >>> what we know as the Pearson chisquared test -- but for a few >>> years, he insisted that it had 3 degrees of freedom, not 1. And >>> he refused to publish the folks who argued (what he finally >>> conceded) for 1. >>> >>> This is frequent a characteristic of Aspergers Syndrome (which >>> is a diagnosis no longer in the book; too bad). >> >> Whoa! I'm no expert on Aspergers, but that is a big leap. There are >> half a dozen cognitive biases that could equally explain Pearson's >> behaviour. Have a sift: >> >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases >> >> Just for starters: >> >> - Escalation of commitment: >> >> >> - Illusory truth effect: >> >> >> - Big Ego. As the editor of Biometrika for 35 years, he would certainly >> not like to be corrected. > >Yes, I don't think it's peculiar to Asperger's or autism. People often >adopt positions without exploring them thoroughly, commit themselves, >and then feel obliged to defend that commitment, even when it turns out >they're wrong. > >It's not easy to admit one is wrong, but it has its advantages. It >brings discussion to a halt, instead of prolonging it embarrassingly, >and one gains Brownie points for valuing the truth. Consider this combination: Asserting something that is not true is LYING. LYING is very bad, like, a bad sin. So one is careful in what one asserts. And one does not want to admit to the sin of being wrong. This creates a certain internal conflict, because there is also the notion that a 'sin' should be something that was intentional; and the original mis-statement is not something that one regrets. Bill (stats-resident Aspie) would justify his (very rare) backing down by asserting that there are two different 'cases' and he was thinking of the other (and more important, somehow) one. -- Rich Ulrich