Since repositories are popular and useful, I thought it would be good to have one where we pair common bad/incorrect/flawed/misleanding/incomplete ideas with high-quality articles that explain why those ideas are bad/incorrect/flawed/misleading/incomplete.
The Rebuttal Repository
Since repositories are popular and useful, I thought it would be good to have one where we pair common bad/incorrect/flawed/misleanding/incomplete ideas with high-quality articles that explain why those ideas are bad/incorrect/flawed/misleading/incomplete.
Examples:
Myers-Briggs as a theory of personality. → Richard Batty’s “The Myers-Briggs type Indicator: A Popular But Flawed Way of Understanding Your Personality” from 80000 Hours.
Microfinance → Ben Todd’s “Is Microfinance Mostly Hype?” and GiveWell’s “6 Myths About Microfinance Charity Donors Can Do Without”.
Zizek’s talk on charity “First as Tragedy, then as Farce” (or the idea that charity is bad because it undermines political change) → Jeff Kaufman’s “Good Charity as Neither Tragedy or Farce”.
The idea that the AI will be benevolent/Friendly by default. → Luke and Louie’s “Intelligence Explosion and Machine Ethics”.
etc.