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How do I learn to detect logical fallacies in a conversation?

It is difficult for me to ascertain when the person I am communicating is using a logical fallacy to trick me into believing him or doubting my judgement, even when I realise it hours after the argument.

I have seen countless arguments in Reddit threads and I couldn't figure out who was in the right or wrong unless I looked at the upvote counts. Even if the person is uttering a blatant lie, they somehow make it sound in a way that is completely believable to me. If it weren't for those people that could exactly point out the irrationality behind these arguments, my mind would have been lobotomised long ago.

I do want to learn these critical thinking skills but I don't know where to begin from. I could have all these tips and strategies memorised in theory, but they would be essentially useless if I am not able to think properly or remember them at the heat of the moment.

There could be many situations I could be unprepared for, like when the other person brings up a fact or statistic to support their claim and I have no way to verify it at the moment, or when someone I know personally to be wise or well-informed bring up about such fallacies, perhaps about a topic they are not well-versed with or misinformed of by some other unreliable source, and I don't know whether to believe them or myself.

Could someone help me in this? I find this skill of distinguishing fallacies from facts to be an extremely important thing to have in this age of misinformation and would really wish to learn it well if possible. Maybe I could take inspiration from how you came about learning these critical thinking skills by your own.

Edit: I do not blindly trust the upvote count in a comment thread to determine who is right or wrong. It just helps me inform that the original opinion is not inherently acceptable by everyone. It is up to me decide who is actually correct or not, which I can do at my leisure unlike in a live conversation with someone where I don't get the time to think rationally about what the other person is saying.

99
What is the best place to get to know more about the game without getting completely spoiled?

There are moments when I do not wish to continue playing a game but still wish to learn about the game and the things that happened in it so far. Sometimes the story becomes too confusing or I forget that one in-game tip that is needed to beat the game, which is when I am forced to research on that topic else the rest of my gameplay is pretty much ruined.

But then I face the problem of encountering spoilers between my research. Even a small thing as a thumbnail or a video title in Youtube or an article analyzing the ending by exactly stating what the ending was directly in the title would instantly destroy the suspense of the story building inside the game and consequently my interest in that game. I even refuse to look into the comment section of game trailers anymore in fear of some jerk that would literally spell out the fate of the characters in the end without being subtle at all.

Is there any community or website that provides content about various game titles keeping into account people who haven't finished the game? Perhaps a guide segregated into well defined chapters whose lore context is contained into the chapter itself, or a video series in a similar fashion in form of playlists or timestamp-marked videos or just something that offers a spoiler warning beforehand? Is there someplace I can rely on to get to know more about a game without getting instantly spoiled?

7
Recommendations for open world games with focus on interaction instead of exploration or survival

I would like recommendations for open world games where the player has abundant ways to interact with the world, be it with the NPCs or buildings, and does not have to worry about survival aspects of the character or spending time exploring a static world. I would not mind if it comes at the cost of a smaller sized world, as long as it remains an open world game.

By interaction, I am not just talking about side missions or the main story. I wish for the ability to perform actions that affect the NPCs directly or make them react to it, like combat or conversations. I also wish to interact with the outside objects and buildings, like sitting on a bench, driving a random parked vehicle, or entering a building to observe or interact with its interiors. I am not keen on base building nor caring for hunger/thirst/shelter.

A great example of this could be the Watchdogs franchise. I have never seen the level of interaction with the world in any other game the way Watchdogs provides. From the streets to the vehicles to the individual people, there are so many ways to how I can mess up with the city, meanwhile the game does not bother me to eat or sleep. Overall I think of it as GTA but better. Another example could be the first Assassin's Creed game (since it's the only one I've played so far) where the interaction comes in the form of stealthily killing enemies, hiding and blending with the environment and parkouring through the rooftops of the various cities. Maybe another example of such a game could be Skyrim. Though it does contain a great amount of exploration and villages are small and scarce in the world, there is surprisingly a lot of interactive elements in the villages themselves. Plus the different types of loots when raiding a dungeon of fighting a monster with your own arsenal of weapons, this partially qualifies as a match for me.

I am sure there is some genre or a category that perfectly encapsulates what I am looking for and it is just at the tip of my tongue. Please provide me with any game titles that match my requirements as stated above. I would understand if I am asking for too much.

21
How do devs at Windows, macOS, Linux etc. upgrade their OS using their existing OS?

Websites, mobile apps, desktop apps and mobile OSes are developed and updated using the desktop OSes, which I would call the 'master OS'. But who updates the 'master'? How do the devs upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11 using Windows 10?

I have some experience in computing but software development for operating systems is completely mysterious for me. I have had this question ever since I learned about software development in general.

I saw Apple say how they use the Macs to build all of their other products and softwares, but they never answer how they build macOS itself. I understand how these companies could design an upgraded or a brand new computer by designing its new architecture as well as the circuitry and the components underneath with the help of a program like CAD. What I don't understand is how they upgrade their existing software they themselves work in, especially when it has completely new features the old one doesn't have. I feel like this is similar to a person performing a brain surgery on himself.

I would really appreciate if someone could ELI5 but only dumb it down enough for a person that understands how to really work with computers and knows the general theory of programming , like an amateur or the family IT guy.

9
What are the most appropriate responses to some very uncomfortable and awkward questions?

Share any question you've been asked which would make any other person feel awkward from answering it and an answer to responsibly deal with it without compromising yourself.

31
What are your favourite analogies for explaining difficult or complex concepts?

Explain any one particular complex topic using an analogy you found interesting or easily understandable.

35
If we have such a high field of vision, why can't we focus on everything within the vision simultaneously?
  • you’d be scared to see that everything is grossly blurry and distorted save for a very small circle where the image is very clear

    This is what interests and distresses me about the mysteries of the human body. I once saw a video about capturing a person's recollection of his memory of a video clip by scanning his brain activity. The result was really obscured and blurry, but it actually did resemble the clip, which was deeply disturbing. I would have never known my actual vision is vastly different from what my brain makes me perceive to be.

  • If we have such a high field of vision, why can't we focus on everything within the vision simultaneously?

    Why is it that I am not able to read a book without moving my eyes if the entirety of the page is within my field of view? Why do I have to center my eyes on an object to observe it fully? And why is it that I am still able to view changes in surroundings in the edges of my field of vision despite there being supposedly no way to focus on them from that angle?

    Is it due to our brain's capacity to absorb a finite amount of visual information at a given moment or is it a physical flaw in the structure of our eyes?

    10
    What is something that people think is dangerous but in reality is completely harmless?
  • Woah, this one is actually surprising to me. Even though I am in favour of nuclear power, I do have some fear of living in close proximity of such plants, especially seeing how even the clothing used in the facility is mixed into the barrels of radioactive wastes.

  • Recommendations for an overly priced trash game with unlimited microtransactions

    Hello everyone. I have lately been in a good mood and wish to spend some money on a game. By that, I mean all of it. I want to empty my entire savings on a game, and not just any game.

    I am looking specifically for a game which is a complete and utter dumpster. Horrible controls, ugly graphics, incomplete assets and bugs on every aspect of the gameplay, all within a bundle whose size occupies more than half of my PC's storage. And it has to be expensive. I am looking for a game with the base price no less than 70$, with microtransactions of every kind available at this time, whether it be in the form of cosmetics, virtual currency, battle passes, subscriptions, DLCs or any worthless virtual in-game item. I'll be delightful to pay for them all!

    Please don't recommend me one of those 'indie' games. I truly despise their polished and complete nature, and the love and care that went into them by those wretched developers with a 'soul', going their way to bring something 'new' and 'fresh' to the market. I would rather pay my hard-earned money to the more-deserving big corporations who have no sympathy for their playerbase and push out the same trash over and over again.

    I would kindly ask anyone who knows of any such game to please let me know as I have my entire savings account to burn, exactly how the general game companies think people do. Extra points for those which I can pre-order.

    5
    Is it possible to imagine a universe with a different set of laws of physics?

    Some people suggest the idea of a multiverse with each universe having a unique set of laws of physics governing it, but not many delve deeper into this. I was wondering if it was even possible to imagine a universe that is different to ours in this regard.

    The universe could share some of the laws from our universe yet still be different enough that it is not a matter of just tweaking a few digits of the gravitational constant or the speed of light. Also the universe with those set of laws should be able to sustain itself through the same period as our universe has been so far, meaning it shouldn't implode or instantaneously cease to exist the moment it is born.

    Is it even possible to imagine this? If not, is this due to us having become so accustomed to the logic of our universe that we cannot come up with any such idea that does not exist here, or is it just that our universe happens to be the only possible one to exist, at least while maintaining the harmony between each law of physics and avoiding any paradoxes to occur?

    3
    Can someone still viewing Reddit explain how it is doing as of right now in terms of content quality and engagement?

    To someone who is subscribed to multiple communities on Reddit, has there been any change in their feed in their quality or amount of posts since July 1st? Any change in the amount of comments in the posts? Even the number of community subscribers?

    I want to see how Reddit is doing without going back to their site to check. I know other people might still be seeing Reddit, so I wish to hear directly from them.

    32
    What are your best tips to solve Single Choice Questions by guesswork?
  • To clarify, I am not advocating that the above points are applicable in every case. These are ultimately observations just like weather forecasts and one must exercise their own common sense to determine if it is even worth approximating the correct option like this. What I tried to accomplish here was just a thought experiment and maybe a way to guide someone to the correct solution if a question did not make sense to them at all.

  • InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/β€žInitials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by β€žDiceBear”, licensed under β€žCC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)DA
    Datman2020 @lemmy.fmhy.ml
    Posts 28
    Comments 18