epistemology

Knowing Things is Hard

Knowing things is hard, even about the past. Over the years I have compiled pithy names for some of the reasons why this is. This week I decided to share them in the style of Andrew Gelman’s Handy Statistical Lexicon or Samuel Johnson’s dictionary. Right now many entries are blank or just link to other people’s websites and articles. If I ever turn these into a book, I will expand them. Until then I can add entries one at a time as they become necessary.

A warning from Wikipedia saying "This argument relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources." — The Wikipedia {{primary sources}} cleanup template, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_index/Cleanup#Verifiability_and_sources Cleanup templates are for articles which should be improved. A good feature of Wikipedia is that these templates provide hints on how to improve the article instead of just complaining.

Have you ever seen a Wikipedia page warn you that it cites too many primary sources? Or wondered why the most active Wikipedia editors tend to be understimulated older or younger people but rarely practitioners, researchers, or journalists?¹ It turns out these two factors are connected, because Wikipedia has a unique culture which is hard for academics or journalists to engage with.