5/13/2019

Experts, Smexperts!!

I just wanted to bookmark this interesting article

As the Danish proverb warns, “It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.”

Comparing experts as "hedgehogs" or experts with deep knowledge of their field to "foxes" people with a wide range of interests

In Tetlock’s 20-year study, both the broad foxes and the narrow hedgehogs were quick to let a successful prediction reinforce their beliefs. But when an outcome took them by surprise, foxes were much more likely to adjust their ideas. Hedgehogs barely budged. Some made authoritative predictions that turned out to be wildly wrong—then updated their theories in the wrong direction. They became even more convinced of the original beliefs that had led them astray. The best forecasters, by contrast, view their own ideas as hypotheses in need of testing. If they make a bet and lose, they embrace the logic of a loss just as they would the reinforcement of a win. This is called, in a word, learning.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/how-to-predict-the-future/588040/