<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@samth" class="u-url mention">@<span>samth</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://types.pl/@wilbowma" class="u-url mention">@<span>wilbowma</span></a></span> I don't see that to be the case at all... </p><p>The thing that makes "Gee, I bet Harvard / Cambridge / Whatever is really good because it is famous!" shower-thoughts fundamentally different from "This extremely detailed website says that CMU is the best CS department ever" is precisely that the latter comes with some "evidence" and so it carries more weight automatically among unfamiliar people, whereas the evidence-free "Harvard Cool!" thing carries comparatively less weight among unfamiliar people.</p><p>So if you consider the relative consequences of "Harvard is best b/c it is the most famous name!" being wrong and "CMU is best because of all this evidence!" being wrong, obviously the consequences of the latter are far more grave because people would have taken it more seriously.</p>
