Un poco de sabiduría para el finde

 Un par de buenos comentarios para reflexionar el finde:

- Mucha sabiduría de Russ Roberts en esta entrevista con Megan McArdle (que no vale tanto la pena por lo demás, y que va del sesgo en los LLMs como el de Google):

The goal of education--the goal of being a thinking human being--is to be thoughtful. Is to understand that some statements have some truth, but not a hundred percent.

But, I think people have come to believe--mistakenly--that things are either on or off, yes or no. 'Google, just tell me: Is Volvo a good company or a bad company?' Or, 'Is Elon Musk a good guy or a bad guy? Should I not mention him that I like him because I could get in trouble? Or should I be excited to say he's awful because I'll earn more friends that way?'

That's a horrible way to live.

...

You know, the whole problem is there are two kinds of things working at the same time and they're not the same thing. One thing is: How do I evaluate something? Is Volvo a good company to work for, a pleasant company? Is Elon Musk a good dinner companion? Is he somebody I'd want running, say, the state of California or Texas? That's a question of evaluation.

Then there's facts. Where was Elon Musk born? South Africa, I think. Right? And, how do I know if those things are true?

We started somewhere along the line to try to find evaluations that were like facts. Things that were either true or false rather than nuanced. And, as a result--your image of a child: Your child has to learn that the stove is bad. As the child grows older and learns about heat and skin, the child does not have to be kept away from the hot stove. In fact, the child learns to integrate--as the child gets older--the stove into a creative process called cooking and cuisine.

But, somehow we want to live a child's simplicity all the time in every area. And, this leads to this grotesque infantilization of political debate.

And then--last point--you start to get people not knowing what the facts are. Because they just think they're either true or false; and they don't think about that some people lie and they don't think that some people make mistakes and they don't think that some people have an ax to grind. So they just either--they assume most things are true. If they agree with them, right? Otherwise, they're false.

And this infantilization of the modern mind is the road to hell. It is not like, 'Well, this is going to be difficult for democracy. Democracy is going to run this challenging.'

- Y también un gran comentario de Tim Harford a propósito de Jasmin Paris, la primera mujer que ha terminado una especie de maratón dantesca:

There is a lesson here for those pulling the levers of public policy, taxing and subsidising and regulating in an attempt to make the world a better place, and for corporations setting “compensation” packages. People want money and pleasure, but also to challenge themselves, to feel a sense of meaning and enjoy a sense of mastering their craft. Policymakers and managers ignore such desires at their peril. In each of us, there is a tiny spark of Jasmin Paris.