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What's the most petty/pointless/pedantic hill you're willing to die on? (programming.dev)

submitted 3 months ago by notnotmike@programming.dev to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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For me, it may be that the toilet paper roll needs to have the open end away from the wall. I don't want to reach under the roll to take a piece! That's ludicrous!

That or my recent addiction to correcting people when they use "less" when they should use "fewer"

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[-] Wirlocke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 34 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I hate hate hate when people try to discredit a theory because "it's a theory not a fact" as if the label of "fact" exists on some kind of science ladder for an idea. "Facts" is a colloquial word like any other, it's not some special category above theories.

Moreover, the most tried and tested theories are facts. Science rarely just disproves an established theory outright. Einstein's General Relatively equations reduces into Newton's Laws of Motion in most situations. Newton's Laws of Motion weren't "wrong", it's just General Relatively is more specific and accurate.

The Scientific Method usually just builds on what already exists without claiming we were all unfactual for working with what we had.

[-] Frostbeard@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Hypothesis < Theory < Law/Axiom

[-] aes@programming.dev 7 points 3 months ago

Axioms are not like the others, they're assumed to be true even before considering any evidence or even arguments.

[-] el_bhm@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago

Theory != hypothesis.

[-] dnick@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

Facts are tiny, but there are a lot of them. Theories are big but only useful the fewer of them there are. Grow oversimplifications, of course, but the more facts a theory can explain, the more successful the theory. Maybe that's is how they should be framed, theories are never proven, they are only successful or disproven.

this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2024

472 points (98.2% liked)

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