Numpty -- "Someone who (sometimes unwittingly) by speech or action demonstrates a lack of knowledge or misconception of a particular subject or situation to the amusement of others."
Now that applies to quite a few people I've read, particularly the propertarians we were discussing recently...
For another example of mumpsimus, see this post on the persistence of the erroneous belief in a general factor for human intelligence (denoted g), despite the absence of any valid statistical evidence for it.
http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/523.html
One has to ask, as Cosma Shalizi does regarding g, just who benefits from the persisistence of an erroneous belief?
Factor analysis, which provides the mathematics for arguments over g, is a subject I would like to understand in more detail than I do. The theory of linear production models draws heavily on the Perron-Frobenius theorem. I think it neat that it shows up in Cosma's exposition, too.
How about this wonderful Scots word?
ReplyDeleteNumpty -- "Someone who (sometimes unwittingly) by speech or action demonstrates a lack of knowledge or misconception of a particular subject or situation to the amusement of others."
Now that applies to quite a few people I've read, particularly the propertarians we were discussing recently...
Iain
An Anarchist FAQ
For another example of mumpsimus, see this post on the persistence of the erroneous belief in a general factor for human intelligence (denoted g), despite the absence of any valid statistical evidence for it.
ReplyDeletehttp://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/523.html
One has to ask, as Cosma Shalizi does regarding g, just who benefits from the persisistence of an erroneous belief?
Factor analysis, which provides the mathematics for arguments over g, is a subject I would like to understand in more detail than I do. The theory of linear production models draws heavily on the Perron-Frobenius theorem. I think it neat that it shows up in Cosma's exposition, too.
ReplyDelete