Stamp01
Joined 4 years ago
Joined 4 years ago
However, I've met several people in the tech industry who are adherents. Whenever any conversation entered slightly philosophical in nature, which happens unusually often in tech in my experience, the individuals I'm thinking of would immediately ask, "Well, have you ever read or listened to Alan Watts?" I'd simply say something like, "Yeah, but he doesn't really do it for me." And I'm met with this condescending "You'll understand/agree when you get older (aka wiser)" response. I'm 35, not 15.
Anyway, yeah, I'm sure it's not all Alan Watts stans, but isn't it weird that it happened 3 times? I now regard advertising Alan Watts as a red flag.
Ever since I was made aware of Betteridge's law of headlines, and I started noticing it was correct based on my own experiences, I more or less refuse to read anything with a question as the title. I'm sure I'm missing a few good things with this practice, but I'm saving a lot of time missing out on wastes of time. Enough so that I consider it a net benefit.
Similarly, from now on, I'm going to be immediately suspicious of all claims that are served up with a side of folksy anecdotes.
The whole thing seems like a fallacy by appeal to "common sense".