[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN} Who to design for?

[Caliban Darklock]

On 6/6/07, Sean Howard <squidi at squidi.net> wrote:
>
> Common wisdom is a finished thought.

There's no such thing. Every thought is the foundation for more
thought. The common wisdom is just that: common. Not in the
"uninteresting" sense, but in the "ubiquitous" sense. When you work
with a team of people, you can start from common wisdom and have a
productive discussion. If you start instead from some other point, you
have to begin the discussion by constructing the foundations of that
point starting from... common wisdom.

> And if you adhere too tightly to this absurd idea that
> somehow, people must be right some of the time, you
> don't spend enough time thinking whether or not they
> are right THIS TIME.

That doesn't logically follow. If I am looking at common wisdom, and I
believe that sometimes people are right, I will examine the common
wisdom to see if it is right.

If I DON'T believe that people are sometimes right, I won't examine
it, because I already know whether it is right. My only options are to
believe that people are NEVER right, so I "know" the common wisdom is
wrong... or that people are ALWAYS right, so I "know" the common
wisdom is right.

But in reality, it's ONLY when I believe people are SOMETIMES right
that I examine the common wisdom at all. It's the only empirically
acceptable position that permits the common wisdom to be discussed at
all.