First, I would also like to thank the organisers for a well-run and diverse workshop. The quality of the talks was generally high as was the level of the discussion.
Phil/ With all due respect, I don’t agree with the above. You always get the odd question that would have been better left unasked at any talk, but generally speaking I don’t think there were too many questions (though it could be argued that some of them should have been deferred to the Q&A.) In my opinion more time should have been allocated to questions and discussions.
(Many of these questions felt uncharitable, like “what you just said seems unlikely to me, and I’d like you to back it up” instead of assuming that the speaker probably knows what they’re talking about.)
If the speaker doesn’t give sufficient reasons for their claims, then one should point that out, in my opinion. Critical discussion is a central part of rationalism. On the other hand, one shouldn’t be nit-picky either, and exactly where the line goes is often hard to tell. I certainly think, though, that the points I made in this regard were sufficiently important to raise during the talk in question, rather than after it (or not at all).
I realise I might be in the minority on this point but these are nevertheless my views.
Critical discussion is important, but there’s a time and a place. In the speaker-audience model, I’m not sure we should expect the speaker to present much evidence for the things that they say. The format isn’t well-suited to it, when neither the speaker nor the audience is capable of looking up references. It would be better for the speaker to prepare a list of references and share it outside the talk, and for the talk itself to focus on the things they’re actually trying to say, which perhaps the speaker-audience model has a comparative advantage for.
I do agree that it might not be obvious whether a question is valuable, so perhaps a better rule of thumb would be “if the speaker answers a question, don’t follow up on the reply”.
First, I would also like to thank the organisers for a well-run and diverse workshop. The quality of the talks was generally high as was the level of the discussion.
Phil/ With all due respect, I don’t agree with the above. You always get the odd question that would have been better left unasked at any talk, but generally speaking I don’t think there were too many questions (though it could be argued that some of them should have been deferred to the Q&A.) In my opinion more time should have been allocated to questions and discussions.
If the speaker doesn’t give sufficient reasons for their claims, then one should point that out, in my opinion. Critical discussion is a central part of rationalism. On the other hand, one shouldn’t be nit-picky either, and exactly where the line goes is often hard to tell. I certainly think, though, that the points I made in this regard were sufficiently important to raise during the talk in question, rather than after it (or not at all).
I realise I might be in the minority on this point but these are nevertheless my views.
Critical discussion is important, but there’s a time and a place. In the speaker-audience model, I’m not sure we should expect the speaker to present much evidence for the things that they say. The format isn’t well-suited to it, when neither the speaker nor the audience is capable of looking up references. It would be better for the speaker to prepare a list of references and share it outside the talk, and for the talk itself to focus on the things they’re actually trying to say, which perhaps the speaker-audience model has a comparative advantage for.
I do agree that it might not be obvious whether a question is valuable, so perhaps a better rule of thumb would be “if the speaker answers a question, don’t follow up on the reply”.