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[–]GConly 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

So, I have Asperger's, and I rock at puzzles and I do a bunch daily. Im also heavily into science, and I can tell you plenty of people with PhDs absolutely suck at logic and problem solving where complex data is involved.

I had arguments with PhDs (online) that I won before I had a degree/or never had one in the relevant subject.

A lot of people have a "lazer focus" and get bogged down in minor details and miss obvious large facts that mean their position is untenable.

Prime example, back in 2010 I had an epic argument with a PhD as to whether humans had Neanderthal ancestry, based on a set of bones. As I pointed out, non Africans have a whole bunch of genes that are very ancient, and don't come from Africa (tmrca over 200k in some cases). These bones had Neanderthal traits, their prognathism etc was down to Neanderthal ancestry, not that ancient Europeans looked like modern Africans.

And, Neanderthals were so close to us genetically that we certainly could have produced young.

This guy just couldn't see there was a kind of "wall" blocking his "logic path." He'd decided at some point what the outcome was, and couldn't change from it.

I was proven right by a DNA study less than a month later.

I'm seeing the same thing in the covid outbreak. In the UK we've been told IFR mortality is about 1.5%, whereas the data actually shows its about 0 .25%. it's like people aren't seeing the info in context, or spotting what is a good a d bad source.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It feels like people who hit walls will never try to go past them. Do you think it's a religion cancer?