[RP TownTalk] Recommended mechanics? & Dentist rec?

[Nicholas Laureys]

Hi Lou,



You make good points about human nature.  Like it or not (and of course we
don't, as good, capitalist, socialist-hating Americans :)~ ), it's natural
for us as humans to at least sometimes act/think/vote in a collective way.
 As the recent posts about our dear Dumm's market show, though, peoples'
definitions of quality vary greatly, so we should be careful to consider an
uninformed person's recommendation of a dentist as a mark of quality.

Still, if anyone out there is feeling particularly collectivist and is
looking for a dentist, I recommend that you try College Park Dental :
http://www.collegeparkdental.net/ .  I think they have pretty good service,
but the one facet of their business that I'm unequivocally qualified to
evaluate is their convenience: they take appointments beginning at 7 AM!
 For those of you trying to conserve sick leave, this is the best deal in
town!

For the record, Dumm's Corner Market has bullet-proof glass not because it's
owners decided to accentuate the dreary, low-class look some feel it
portrays, but as a reaction to danger.  The store as I recall has been held
up many times, but awhile back when it was once robbed by someone with an
automatic rifle (or some other big-time weapon) the owners reluctantly
decided to put up the glass.  This may not be aesthetically pleasing, but I
challenge any homeowner out there who wants the glass taken down to think
about how you would feel if neighbors wanted to remove a security system or
other anti-theft device from your property.  Also please don't forget that
the former owner of that property had let it get TRULY run-down before Pete
took over (I don't know those facts personally, but heard about it
secondhand when I was a child). I think many in the town agree that Dumm's
is a cornerstone of the community, and to nit-pick the owners over something
simple like beer ads is unfair.

-- 
Nicholas



------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:38:08 -0600
From: Lou King <lking at knob.com>
To: towntalk at riverdale-park.org
Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] Recommended mechanics? & Dentist rec?
Message-ID: <4C676120.5050104 at knob.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed


Nicholas Laureys wrote, On 8/14/2010 7:26 PM:
>
> Think about it: many of us aren't mechanics or dentists, yet the OP's
> will trust our recommendations more than any objective rating or report.
>   I just don't get this preference for outsider rather than expert
> information.
>
> --
> Nicholas Laureys
>

Two points - "We" the buyer assume that the seller (including you at
Best Buy) have a bias and the third party has no monitory involvement ie
no reason to lye or give a biased answer.  I agree that what may be an
uninformed opinion is no better than what may be a bias one. My
experience, particularly in big box stores, has been it is even money
which is which.

On the other hand, there have been several studies, none of which I can
sight right now, that have demonstrated the wisdom of the "collective."
In other words 'lots of uninformed people can be right.' This is nothing
new; '10,000 Frenchman can't be wrong' sound familiar.

But back to the studies. Is I remember they created a situation where
they could used market forces to evaluate the collective opinion of a
large number of people, self-selected non-experts. One study effectively
bought and sold shares as a predictor of election outcome. The
collective was better than pollsters. These were not proxy shares.
Everyone knew what they were doing. The premiums was that the market
price for a stock (candidate) reflected the collective "value" of the
candidate. Memory tells me that the results were duplicated by others.

Now this does not validate the opinion of one person standing around in
the store, or one opinion on this forum. However, it does give some
validity to group think, wikipedia and social networks (I can not
believe I said that!)


Lou
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