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Comment by nonbel | Hacker News Reader

> "we as laymen should refrain from coming to conclusions until after a thorough investigation has been completed"

People say this, but why? It seems to go against human nature. People love to speculate based on limited information and/or understanding.

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Here's one example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunil_Tripathi

Being skeptical and keeping onself safe is fine, but things can go wrong if people are trying to falsely act like experts.

Sometimes even experts have a hard time distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant facts. Let alone normal people with no formal training in the field, no practice, and no evidence.

I blame reddit for this one.

Many reasons - the main one being drawing improper conclusions from the minimal data set available and passing them around as factually correct.

Speculation is fine, it's when someone is on Fox News as an Aviation "Expert" claiming that the plane was struck by an angry Zeus's lightning bolt, which many segments of the population will believe, that's when we have problems.

> People say this, but why? It seems to go against human nature. People love to speculate based on limited information and/or understanding.

We should resist that part of our nature. It is not rational.

Not saying I disagree (I tend to favor rational behavior myself), but this sounds like a dogma.

What evidence is there that only acting rationally is "better"?

Speculation is fine.

Concluding things off it is not.

That is true. I didn't read carefully enough.

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