Don't Be A Dick

[Lorizael]

This is from 5ish years ago, and it's half an hour long so no one is going to sit through it, and you all aren't precisely the target audience, but Dr. Plait here makes an incredibly good point that I think it would all be to our benefit to take to heart.

[-Jrabbit]

So if I just take the title to heart I can save 31:07 in viewing/listening time? Done.

[Lorizael]

Well, there's a little more nuance to it than that. He's at a skeptics conference, and his argument is that convincing people to be rational and skeptical and scientific is a hard enough task as it is, so why make it more difficult by being a dick, which modern psychological research tells us may make us feel good but is pretty darn likely not to convince anyone of anything (and may even make your opponents dig in deeper).

[Lorizael]

Also, Phil is a gifted communicator, so I'd recommend watching it just for the hell of it.

[Thoth]

TLDW. Summary?

[Ming]

TLDW. Summary?

Don't be a Dick

[Thoth]

bugger that for a lark.

[I AM MOBIUS]

Something for the likes of Richard Dawkins to take heed of then...

[Elok]

I keep wanting to append "to South Central while drinking your juice in the hood" here. I assume only I have that problem though.

[Geronimo]

This is from 5ish years ago, and it's half an hour long so no one is going to sit through it, and you all aren't precisely the target audience, but Dr. Plait here makes an incredibly good point that I think it would all be to our benefit to take to heart.

I hate that only a tiny fraction of worthwhile recorded content has a transcript available. I daresay some messages were more likely to get to a larger audience when the option to distribute them in a recorded format didn't exist and you *had* to get it in writing.

[Lorizael]

I don't know of a transcript, but there's this:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2010/08/17/dont_be_a_dick_part_1_the_video.html

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2010/08/18/dont_be_a_dick_part_2_links.html

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2010/08/19/dont_be_a_dick_part_3_the_aftermath.html