I think you’re nitpicking; if what she’s saying sounds completely obviously unreasonable then it’s probably not what she meant. She means something like “There’s a 60% chance that diets, legal supplements, fasting, and/or exercise, in amounts that Western culture would count as memetically reasonable, and in amounts that can be reasonably expected to be undertaken by members of Western culture, can cause significant weight loss.” To which everyone says, “No, more like 95%”, not “Haha obviously liposuction works, and so does starvation, you imprecise person: next time write a paragraph’s worth of disclaimers and don’t count on the ability of your audience to make charitable interpretations.”
Maybe I have a different idea than you of memetically reasonable, but I’m perfectly happy saying “No, more like 1-10^-30” to your statement as well as hers. Maybe I need to make a top level post here, but I think that it’s a very small minority of humans that are unable to lose weight through diet and exercise, even if the degree of effort required is one not frequently undertaken. I don’t think that the degree of effort required is considered widely unreasonable in Western culture.
My p value is so high because this thread asks us to discount matters of opinion, so the probability that the effort required is beyond what is considered reasonable seems outside the scope. Same for “reasonably expected”. I feel like it’s enough to say that the methods don’t require super-human willpower or vast resources. I think the methods themselves are unquestionable.
I think you’re nitpicking; if what she’s saying sounds completely obviously unreasonable then it’s probably not what she meant. She means something like “There’s a 60% chance that diets, legal supplements, fasting, and/or exercise, in amounts that Western culture would count as memetically reasonable, and in amounts that can be reasonably expected to be undertaken by members of Western culture, can cause significant weight loss.” To which everyone says, “No, more like 95%”, not “Haha obviously liposuction works, and so does starvation, you imprecise person: next time write a paragraph’s worth of disclaimers and don’t count on the ability of your audience to make charitable interpretations.”
Maybe I have a different idea than you of memetically reasonable, but I’m perfectly happy saying “No, more like 1-10^-30” to your statement as well as hers. Maybe I need to make a top level post here, but I think that it’s a very small minority of humans that are unable to lose weight through diet and exercise, even if the degree of effort required is one not frequently undertaken. I don’t think that the degree of effort required is considered widely unreasonable in Western culture.
My p value is so high because this thread asks us to discount matters of opinion, so the probability that the effort required is beyond what is considered reasonable seems outside the scope. Same for “reasonably expected”. I feel like it’s enough to say that the methods don’t require super-human willpower or vast resources. I think the methods themselves are unquestionable.