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--- an_empty_table [2017/12/12 12:17]
lverona
+++ an_empty_table [2025/02/21 09:01] (current)
lverona [Empty Table Perception Asymmetry]
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 ====== An Empty Table ======
-~~NOTOC~~
 [{{ :wiki:empty_table.png?nolink&200|List of good reasons to believe that the Earth is flat}}]
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 Empty tables are extremely popular among people who need to make a table on a subject that they are ignorant about. An empty table is also great as a listing of ideas that you still did not think of.
-===== Additional notes =====
+===== Empty Table Perception Asymmetry =====
-It can be argued that empty tables can say more than intended. A person who has not yet filled out a table may seem smarter than she really is. Once the table is filled out, it would be clear she is a psychopath, or just a very bored diesel mechanic.
-This perception asymmetry of a person before and after they fill out a table is called an //empty table perception asymmetry//. It is a strictly professional term, although the professions that use this term are so specialized, and the terms they use are so narrow, that their width hardly exceeds that of a hair. As a result, nobody really ever refers to the //empty table perception asymmetry//, and laymen are advised against showing off their knowledge of the concept.
+It can be argued that empty tables can say more than intended. A person who has not yet filled out her table may seem smarter than she really is. Once the table is filled out, it would be clear she is a psychopath, or just a very bored diesel mechanic.
-Among intellectuals using the phrase even as an inside joke is considered extremely offensive, to the point of considering it an obstruction of justice.
+This perception asymmetry of a person before and after they fill out a table is called an //empty table perception asymmetry//. It is a strictly professional term, although the professions who use this term are so rare, and the terms that they use are so narrow, that their width hardly exceeds the width of a hair. As a result, nobody really ever refers to the //empty table perception asymmetry//, and laymen are advised against showing off their knowledge of the concept.
-===== Criticism of empty tables =====
+Among intellectuals using the term even as an inside joke is considered extremely offensive, to the point of being considered an obstruction of justice.
+===== Necessarily Empty Tables =====
-[[J. N. Spoilsport]] argues that empty tables may be breeding grounds for offensive content, since theoretically anyone can write anything in them. [[Mr. Porridge]] counters that any given table has limited dimensions, which in turn limit the amount of content it can hold. Therefore, you cannot write **anything** in an empty table.
+A whole class of empty tables must logically stay empty. For example, a table of ideas you still haven't come up with is always necessarily empty. As soon as you put something in it - it then becomes an idea that //you did come up with//, therefore it has to be immediately removed from the table.
-"It is clear that if you have a small empty table, you cannot write a novel in it. This is fairly obvious. I have no idea how someone can think otherwise," - Mr. Porridge says.
-[[The Cave]] forum post in 2016 has commented on this by launching a project that would allow an Excel table to hold compressed text. That way, Mr. Porridge would be proven false.
-[[Dan Dindridge]] has summed up the whole exchange by pointing out that empty tables is something that "the public doesn't give a shit about".
 ===== An Empty Table Example =====
 {{:wiki:empty_table.png?nolink|}}

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