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Comment by calciphus | Hacker News Reader

Being right about one thing doesn't make you right about everything, eh?

(critique of the individual cited, not you)

The opposite is just true as well. For instance Halley supported the Hollow Earth Theory [1]. And Einstein wrote a foreword to a book detailing how the Earth crust would slide in one dramatic cataclysm [2].

[1] https://www.wired.com/2014/07/fantastically-wrong-hollow-ear...

[2] https://wireofinformation.wordpress.com/tag/einstein-forewor...

Edit: the opposite being, "Being wrong about one thing doesn't make you wrong about everything"

To some extent, you have to be a crank to have the confidence and persistence in opposing the vast majority of established thought long enough to discover something new. "The distance between genius and insanity is measured only by success."

Of course, that doesn't mean that the rest of us are obligated to listen to any of it until that success has been realized.

Interesting comment, seeing as most of the other comments to this post takes the opposite position; they're implying being wrong about one thing makes one wrong about everything.

Yes, being right about one thing doesn't make you right about everything, but being wrong about one thing makes you wrong about everything. It is known. (Especially when aliens are involved.)

It's a fundamental breaking of symmetry in our universe, also known as: luck is blind, but curse has 10/10 eyesight.

"being right about one thing makes you right about everything"

and

"being wrong about one thing makes you wrong about everything."

are logically equivalent :)

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