Subject: Re: PART TWO: winning industrial-use of lisp: Re: Norvig's latest paper on Lisp From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 03:48:42 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3233533721749853@naggum.net> * Andreas Hinze | And that prudent consultant will shure "prepare" the customer against all | rank nonsens the customer may find, don't you? Sure, and they will invest hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars on the argumentation skills of a consultant and his ability to refute all the other people while standing on one foot. _Please_. (Besides, it never was nonsense to begin with. It was, in fact, entirely true, but see below.) | I'm wrong? Please give me a hint. The worst argument is that which is true, but completely irrelevant. He who argues it thinks "wrong" is the only rebuttal, yet because it is not wrong, and thus not rebutted, he also thinks it remains relevant. However ... Relevance is orthogonal to truth. If there is only one thing I want to pass on to other people, it is that, because so many smart people spend so much time thinking that relevance is at least _somehow_ related to truth, that just the truth (or "the facts") will be enough to convince people. It is not. It never was. It never will be. Truth, as such, can even be irrelevant. -- Guide to non-spammers: If you want to send me a business offer, please be specific and do not put "business offer" in the Subject header. If it is urgent, do not use the word "urgent". If you need an immediate answer, give me a reason, do not shout "for your immediate attention". Thank you.