How to spot a losing argument

A couple of weeks ago Harry McCracken at Technologizer wrote a piece entitled, "How the iPad 2 Became My Favorite Computer". It was a fascinating look at how a veteran technology journalist shed not only pounds from his carry-on luggage, but preconceptions as well.

Would that the same held true for some of Harry's commenters. An irritating number of them couldn't be bothered to notice how carefully he described his own workflow and explained why the iPad 2 (plus an external keyboard and a collection of apps) suited that workflow. They assumed Harry had claimed an iPad 2 was suitable for all workflows. These same clueless souls trumpeted the iPad 2's inability to satisfy their working needs as proof of the iPad 2's inability to solve anyone's working needs. They thus made the very mistake they wrongly believed Harry had made, that of generalizing from their own limited experience to reach a wrong conclusion. Ah, irony.

One commenter, hackles raised, closed his or her remarks thusly:

This is the experience of many people not just myself.

If you have to say that, you've lost the debate.