Comment by DakotaZachariah on Smart people who are usually wrong · 2012-05-18T20:03:52.870Z · LW · GW

Maybe making a firm statement like "The universe behaves in X fashion" makes for more brief and interesting conversation than "The universe, which may or may not exist, may or may not behave in X fashion under conditions {abc} but not under conditions {def}"

If someone is pretty sure about a thing, they are probably likely to say it is true, rather than nearly certainly true according their subjective understanding.

That is to say, one factor which may or may not be a cause, but not the only cause, of that which you are observing, is the desire for others to be brief in their statements, sacrificing complete thoroughness and rigor either intentionally or unintentionally... or perhaps not.