Dr_SatanWhen somebody tells you something, sometimes it's something they personally experienced and sometimes it's something they heard from somebody else. How do you tell the difference?
You should not believe firsthand accounts you find on the internet anyway. People are here for recreation, for starters, which does not set a high bar for accuracy.
For instance, if I said I tried a dragonfruit the other day and it tasted amazing, you would be somewhat foolish to assume that I actually did try a dragonfruit the other day.
If you follow the general rule of holding reasonable doubt about all firsthand accounts you read online, you will not fall into this trap. Note that the doubt does not need to be complete, just partial. This is sometimes described as taking things with “a grain of salt”, and honestly, is a good idea irl as well.
You absolutely do not want to be one of those people that just believes everyone. That is extremely unhealthy, and will result in you being misled and/or scammed.
A good example would be user reviews, which are highly corruptible. If you go onto amazon, you will find a number of low quality, garbage products that are full of glowing reviews that have likely been solicited by the seller, in one way or another.
Yes, take everything with a grain of salt.
In some areas of knowledge I have to act a little dumb and not flaunt my credentials, and in others just do more research to appear slightly more knowledgeable, to avoid revealing my real identity online.
Yes, and sometimes you have to throw in a real curve ball!
By the way, as head of quality at a saltworks in Europe, I should point out that there are as many shapes and sizes to processed salt as there are subtleties to their trace mineral concentrations. So "a grain of salt" isn't a well defined quantity.