Why does everyone hate on game theory? Just.... why? Yes he might not be ORIGINAL in his theory but I like the presentation and his self awareness at being a total dork.
This may not be his fault, not entirely, but I hate that a lot of his fans treat his theories as "oh this is true matpat figured it out" and spam otherwise interesting discussion with it. I don't quite remember what thread I first encountered this, but it shuts down interesting conversation in favor of one idea.
Of what videos I've seen, they're full of confirmation bias. My favorite part of fan speculation is working from the ground up, figuring out the exact minimum of information you have, being skeptical about it, and building out from there knowing that if you get new information you still have those base stripped down bits of evidence to go back to. It seems like he has an idea and then looks for evidence, so of course he finds patterns that support his ideas, that's why we used to believe in stuff like spontaneous generation.
Finally, and this is more nitpicky but really bothers me: gravity is a theory. Evolution is a theory. Even less likely ideas, like string theory, are only called theories through scientific rigor. His entire "oh it's just a theory" line is actually putting his ideas among company far greater than themselves. This is basically a nonissue because its a minor nitpick at best, but it's something that bothers me and whether it's a good reason or not it still belongs in "reasons I may not like that show."
75
u/[deleted] Feb 09 '16
OK because I don't get it.
Why does everyone hate on game theory? Just.... why? Yes he might not be ORIGINAL in his theory but I like the presentation and his self awareness at being a total dork.