Knowing as looking plus explanation, and who to defer to

knowing involves [looking/sensing] + [generalization or explanation] and you can improve your looking with different types of measuring, whether that's a seismograph or recording videos of cultures stats can tell you you're confused but can't conclusively prove anything

Emmett Shear @eshear · May 14, 2023

Finally, I hit on the right question. “What is the underlying nature of knowing truth to you? What’s the gold standard for evidence? Everyone has to take a lot on faith, there’s too much to figure it all out. But ultimately, what form of evidence trumps all others?”

May 21, 2023

and if 2+ people are sincerely looking and they get different answers, or if you have an explanation but it would also imply something else that you know to not be the case, then there's some confusion somewhere

but lots of "research" is done to prove a point not to sincerely look extreme example is eg tobacco companies trying to prove safety, but also academics trying to keep their jobs, or other rationalizing motives

so when I have to defer, I largely defer to curious friends of mine whose motives are aligned with getting a real answer to their question, as long as their explanations don't contradict the other things that I know or contain type-confusions.

and I probably assess whether the friends are good at figuring stuff out by watching the structure of how they think and look, and seeing how well it aligns with mine on various levels

none of this is very clear cut, but neither is reality, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯