I think you need to unpack “trust” and “take seriously” a little bit to make this assertion. I think nerds are generally (heh) more able to understand the lossiness of models, and to recognize that abstractions are more broadly applicable, but less powerful than specifics.
I wouldn’t say I trust or take seriously the idea of Moloch or the similarities between different optimization mechanisms. I do recognize that those models have a lot of explanatory and predictive power, especially as a head-start (aka “prior”) on domains where I haven’t done the work to understand the exceptions and specifics.
I think you need to unpack “trust” and “take seriously” a little bit to make this assertion. I think nerds are generally (heh) more able to understand the lossiness of models, and to recognize that abstractions are more broadly applicable, but less powerful than specifics.
I wouldn’t say I trust or take seriously the idea of Moloch or the similarities between different optimization mechanisms. I do recognize that those models have a lot of explanatory and predictive power, especially as a head-start (aka “prior”) on domains where I haven’t done the work to understand the exceptions and specifics.