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vi_sextus_vi • yesterday at 8:50 AM • 2 replies • view on HN

Exactly. The lede buried here is, as you say,

  accurate prediction is not better understanding
Which has a statistician counterintuition

  Less "accurate" model can lead to better prediction
Therefore (in my understanding)

  A better understanding encodes more info about how much more it can be improved, when compared to a less good understanding
Maybe understanding should be related to wisdom rather than intelligence? Like Socrates. AGW?

Explained by this wonderful series

Replies

simonh • yesterday at 12:48 PM

I like the point about improvement. For a long time the geocentric cycle and epicycle models of the solar system generated more accurate predictions in most cases than heliocentric ones. Yet anomalies in planetary motion could never have lead to the discoveries of the outer planets using that approach.

sifar • yesterday at 7:22 PM

Can you please elaborate on the series ? I didn't get the reference.