Sunday, June 16, 2013

Have We Been Derped?

Actually, I'm still a bit unsure as to whether Derp is just a noun, or whether it can be a verb as well.

What is a derp? Economist Noah Smith in his blog Noahpinion gives a complete and somewhat humorous explanation here.

It turns out it is connected with epistemology and also with Bayesian analysis. And posteriors.

It explains why some people aren't interested in evidence.

Paul Krugman has a discussion of derpiness here. Even conservative economists use the term.

As for epistemology, epistemic closure (meaning closed minds) can have real world consequences. Here, for example.

This problem has been around for a long time in human affairs. Ecclesiastes had something to say about it:

"...wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness...." Ecclesiastes 2:13-14.

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