Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 13:49:47 01/26/00
Go up one level in this thread
Everybody is wrong about things from time to time. I once argued for 6 months about something before it finally sank in that I was not correct. I have no idea who is right or wrong about CPU cycles and Deep Blue. I have found that Bob does own up to mistakes. Perhaps he simply does not see his position as a mistake. Could be that your EE background makes his position sound odd to you. Will someone without an EE background get the same weight from EE based arguments? I usually don't admit I am wrong until I understand that I am wrong. That can take some doing. Conclusions can be faulty. Remember that poor guy who came here with his FPGA idea? He pretty much got shouted down, and yet from what I have read on the fpga Usenet group, the idea is actually feasible. Sure, he blustered some, but what seemed absurd may not necessarily be so when all the details are revealed. There is nothing wrong with being wrong. I like to say that, because I am wrong a lot. I do think it is a mistake to continue to hold an incorrect position when I am clearly shown to be wrong. But sometimes it takes me a while to understand why I am wrong. I don't think anyone will readily admit to having the wrong position without understanding *why* the position is in error. I have also seen that most of us are not good debaters. We use all the wrong techniques. Faulty dilemmas, ad-hominem attacks, red-herrings, etc. Sometimes, we know we are right and we really *are* right. [Isn't _that_ refreshing when it happens!] But we must be able to communicate the reasons effectively to be successful debaters. Even correct debate from a rational standpoint that uses inescapable logic will not always convince our audience. That is a fact of life and repeatedly demonstrated over and over. But that is the best we can do, so we should try to gain satisfaction from doing our best. I find that when I get mad (which is pretty often) most of the time it is because I am not sure of my position. If I really am sure, I don't get all that angry about it. But when I have a nagging doubt, then I tend to react emotionally instead of logically. I should use that as a cue to myself, but somehow, it usually escapes me. "The time has come, the song is over. Thought I'd something more to say."
This page took 0.01 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.