Mastodawn

In short, if youth is not quite right in its opinions, there is a strong probability that age is not much more so.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1878-03), “Crabbed Age and Youth,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/stevenson-robert-lou…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertlouisstevenson #age #belief #differenceofopinion #error #fallibility #growingup #maturity #oldage #opinion #righteousness #youth

Essay (1878-03), "Crabbed Age and Youth," Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37 - Stevenson, Robert Louis | WIST Quotations

In short, if youth is not quite right in its opinions, there is a strong probability that age is not much more so. Collected in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, ch. 2 (1881)

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Jul 10

A quotation from Lincoln

Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but holding it a sound maxim, that it is better to be only sometimes right, than at all times wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Essay (1832-03-09), “Communication to the People of Sangamo County,” Sangamo Journal (1832-03-15)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/lincoln-abraham/7253…

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WIST Quotations Jun 30

A quotation from Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Alas, one cannot assert authority by accepting one’s own fallibility. Simply, people need to be blinded by knowledge — we are made to follow leaders who can gather people together because the advantages of being in groups trump the disadvantages of being alone. It has been more profitable for us to bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one. Those who have followed the assertive idiot rather than the introspective wise person have passed us some of their genes. This is apparent from a social pathology: psychopaths rally followers.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Black Swan, Part 2, ch. 12 “Epistemocracy, a Dream” (2007)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/taleb-nassim-nichola…

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N-gated Hacker News Jun 2

Oh, look! Another article lamenting the #fallibility of #LLMs while pretending to predict the future of #AI. 🤖🔮 Maybe if they used an LLM, they'd realize their crystal ball is out of batteries. ⚡🔋
https://verissimo.substack.com/p/verissimo-monthly-may-2025 #FutureTech #CrystalBall #Predictions #HackerNews #ngated

Verissimo Monthly - May 2025

The Unreliability of LLMs & What Lies Ahead

Verissimo Ventures

Dorian Santner 🇦🇹Jan 29

"#Science is more than a body of #knowledge.
It's a way of thinking!

A way of skeptically interrogating the #universe with a fine understanding of human #fallibility.

If we are not able to ask skeptical questions to #interrogate those, who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in #authority, then we're up for grabs for the next #charlatan"

Carl Sagan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9A_qFM9IAk

Carl Sagan: Governments Will Use Ignorance of Science and Technology to Control the People

YouTube

WIST Quotations has moved!Dec 4, 2024

A quotation from Roosevelt, Franklin Delano:

«
Governments can err, presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that Divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on different scales. Better the occasional faults of a government that…
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-delano/6433/

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