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JEVIN WEST: So last week
we end with a call to you.
We said, only you--
only you can help clean up
some of the bullshit that's
invading our
digital environments
and our everyday lives.
But I kind of want to take
it a little-- a step further.
I actually think it's our
ethical responsibility
to call bullshit when we see it.
So what we're going
to talk about today,
we're going to talk
about spotting bullshit.
What are some of the alternative
explanations to a claim
that you might run into?
What are some of the
motivations of the person that's
making that claim?
What-- what-- if we
were given something
to buy we would sort of
question these kinds of things.
Like, if you go to a car
dealership, for example,
you would probably
put your radars up
and know this person is
trying to sell me something.
And we want to create these
habits of mind going forward.
We also want to teach
you some of these tricks
and methods for estimating
plausibility quickly.
We'll talk about that.
We'll talk about something
called the Fermi estimation
today.
So for the readings we
put Carl Sagan's chapter
on The Fine Art of
Baloney detection.
I think this is one of
the better most concise--
one of the better
readings out there
that's incredibly concise
for sort of consolidating
all the different ways that
can make you better critical
thinkers.
He talks in here about
not falling in love
with your hypothesis, that
that's something we all do.
We're human.
So when we have an explanation
to something that we've seen
we want to be right.
And if we're wrong it can
completely shake our world.
He also talks-- he talks about
trying to get it independent--
or get it facts by getting sort
of independent confirmation
of that.
He talks a lot
about Occam's razor.
I think a lot of you have heard
that throughout your university
experience here.
The simpler explanation is
generally the better one.
Now these are things
that-- again, we want
to create this habit of mind.
And that is just simply ask,
who is making that claim?
Who is-- you know, what
is their motivation?
What are they
trying to sell you?
And what do they gain from it if
they give you that information?
That sounds a little
cynical, but you need
to be a little bit cynical.
Again, if you were to go to
the car dealership you would--
you would have--
you should be asking
these kinds of questions.
Because you know they're
trying to sell you something,
you know what their
motivations are,
and you know what it's-- what
it is-- what's in it for them.
They're going to get
some sort of commission.
So we want you to have
that kind of frame of mind
when you're going forward.
When you graduate the
University of Washington
and you go into your
professional lives,
and in just your
everyday life, you
should put that
skeptical hat on,
especially when you're in
these digital environments.
You need to be careful
on the toilet, you guys.
This-- these are some
internet memes that I'm
going to put out there.
We're going to try to figure
out whether these memes are true
or not.
No one tells you this, but
more than 30,000 Americans
are injured each year in the
process of using the toilet.
Bullshit or not bullshit?
So here's where you'll
go to the Poll Everywhere
for that particular question.
All right.
And the answer-- well
what the survey says--
all right.
So we have 66 of
you going up on--
going some not bullshit.
Most of you think
this is bullshit.
It's not bullshit.
This one's true.
People really do get
injured on toilets.
In fact, just as a side--
side note-- oh, there it goes.
All right.
I like this.
Live-- live-- live action.
This is adaptive--
adaptive thinking.
Woe.
I wish the world
worked like this.
If we could really switch
our opinions-- well actually
they probably do switch our
opinions really quickly.
How did they switch that?
Oh, you can switch your answer.
Good job.
I probably-- I probably
should knock that out
of the options on
Pull Everywhere.
OK.
So, here's the thing.
There's a little side note.
So people-- has anyone heard
of The valsava maneuver?
I know there's 30
biologists in here.
Does anyone heard
of Valsava maneuver?
Valsava maneuver's when you
exert and you raise your blood
pressure and people pass out.
And people above 65 tend to--
if you look at the numbers,
this is from a
real study, you'll
find that a lot of people
do get injured by toilets.
OK.
All right.
Next question.
Flip the bell peppers
over to check their gender
and sweetness.
You may have seen
this food fact meme.
Some of you may know the answer.
Some of you may not.
Is this bullshit or is it true?
Are female peppers more
sweet than the male peppers?
OK.
All right.
And the survey says?
For those that said bullshit
on this one you are correct.
There-- and actually there are--
I know there is at least 30
biologists in this class,
so you better have got this.
Fruits are sort of
enlarged ovaries.
So they can't be--
there's no sex to
them, let alone gender.
So this one that's been
passing around the internet
is sort of false.
All right.
This one was passing around.
Especially because we're
here in Washington state.
They were talking--
in this story it talks
about how big these warehouses
are that Amazon owns,
a lot of the property
that they own,
a lot of where AWS is
stored, and there was a claim
that the Amazon real estate is
about the same as the Amazon
rain forest.
Bullshit or not bullshit?
True or false?
I'm ready.
Survey says?
So this one is bullshit.
And this one is
really far fetched.
So, all right.
Here we go.
This is good.
SPEAKER: Hey, look, guys.
You guys, I'm giving you credit
no matter what you answer.
You don't have to change.
It's all good.
JEVIN WEST: Yeah.
You're all going to get
points for doing these.
This is easy point.
It's one credit class, guys.
You guys are good.
You guys are going
to probably start
messing with us real soon.
All right.
So let's do one more.
Candle flames contain
millions of tiny diamonds
as they contain all four know--
four known forms of carbon.
B.S. or not B.S?
Survey says?
SPEAKER: Oh.
JEVIN WEST: Woe.
Now this one got you guys.
This one was the hardest one.
This has been talked about
for thousands of years.
A lot of writers, philosophers,
people from religious studies
talk about what's in a flame.
And recently there was a
chemist at Saint Andrews that
looked at this and they found--
they did find that there
were about 1.5 million--
on average, you know, depending
on the candle size, and--
a lot of nanoparticles
of diamond.
They sort of get
burned up afterwards,
but this one's true.
And again, you would have to
know something about chemistry,
but what we're trying
to do here is just
put in that skeptical
hat that-- you know,
we would expect you
here then to drill in,
to look for that article
from Saint Andrew
and you could start to become
better and better at that.
You don't-- we-- I get these
things wrong a lot, too.
And what we're going
to focus the class on
is specifically around data, but
this is just sort of a warm up.
Because we see this kind
of stuff and it gets us--
gets us thinking and gets us
critical of what we're seeing.
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