Philosophers like to respond to those who disparage philosophy (especially scientists), by saying you can't avoid doing philosophy, you either do it well or you do it poorly. But some scientists don't understand the importance of philosophy just because they themselves have good enough intuition.

Is it environmentally good/bad/neutral to turn on a kettle deep inside a building that is being heated without using the water? It's a trade-off between the electricity for heating and the dedicated heating system. Of course, it depends on the specifics of the heating system.>>

Yesterday at the Harvard-MIT theory seminar, Emir Kamenica appealed to what I call the approximate-approximate principle, which was the piece of twitter writing I am most proud of, so I'm reproducing it here (not claiming any priority, b/c it's very simple and Emir put much much more eloquently).>>