> Imagine you are sitting in a meeting at work. The discussion is around the plan your team had set in motion last quarter, and the results are being reviewed. Data is being twisted and harassed to confess to whatever version of reality the group wants to see. You are sitting there, and you see through the charade.
> You’re wondering what the point of this is? You did not slog through life, battling inhuman entrance examinations, irrational parental expectations and eight rounds of interviews to get this coveted job, only to do this data jugglery. You’re wondering - why is nobody asking the fundamental, first principles questions? Why are we not questioning our premise? Why are we misinterpreting cause and effect? Why are we chasing these vanity metrics, when the metrics themselves are poor indicators of reality? Why have we accepted as gospel truth some ‘self-evident’ principles?
> The meeting is adjourned, congratulatory messages are passed around, and a vague way forward is discussed. You shake your head, sigh deeply and groan internally, grab coffee and head to the next meeting.
I call people like the author of this post "intellectual superiors". You know, like in the meme with the fedora-wearing man looking out of a window. I was like him when I was in high school. Now trying to keep my ego in check, still struggling sometimes...
But even though the guy is such an intellectually superior person, he didn't manage to come up with the idea that maybe he's there in that meeting to... contribute? You know, you're part of the team, you're in the meeting for a reason, if you disagree with others, it's your responsibility to say it? You may be right that they are misrepresenting the data or arriving at wrong conclusions -- but it doesn't matter, because you chose to instead indulge yourself silently at feeling superior over these sheep.
> You’re wondering what the point of this is? You did not slog through life, battling inhuman entrance examinations, irrational parental expectations and eight rounds of interviews to get this coveted job, only to do this data jugglery. You’re wondering - why is nobody asking the fundamental, first principles questions? Why are we not questioning our premise? Why are we misinterpreting cause and effect? Why are we chasing these vanity metrics, when the metrics themselves are poor indicators of reality? Why have we accepted as gospel truth some ‘self-evident’ principles?
> The meeting is adjourned, congratulatory messages are passed around, and a vague way forward is discussed. You shake your head, sigh deeply and groan internally, grab coffee and head to the next meeting.
I call people like the author of this post "intellectual superiors". You know, like in the meme with the fedora-wearing man looking out of a window. I was like him when I was in high school. Now trying to keep my ego in check, still struggling sometimes...
But even though the guy is such an intellectually superior person, he didn't manage to come up with the idea that maybe he's there in that meeting to... contribute? You know, you're part of the team, you're in the meeting for a reason, if you disagree with others, it's your responsibility to say it? You may be right that they are misrepresenting the data or arriving at wrong conclusions -- but it doesn't matter, because you chose to instead indulge yourself silently at feeling superior over these sheep.
Philosophers... right?