The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.
–Mark Twain, in a letter to George Bainton (1888)
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The Skeptic's Kaddish 🇮🇱 
absolutely
🙂
…and how I agonize over the right word!
Maremma, right⁉️ Me too❗
-David
Yes! Love Mark Twain wisdom!!
😁
Smallish differences can make or break a lot of things. This reminded me of some philosophy.
Let’s say we have three scenarios
1) Humanity is totally wiped out
2) Only 1% of humanity survives a disaster
3) There is no disaster
I’ve heard a philosopher argue that the difference between 1 and 2 is greater than the difference between 2 and 3. Even though in an immediate sense the difference between 2 and 3 contains more people killed by the disaster, the difference between 1 and 2 contains all the future human lives who could rebuild in the 2nd scenario. So here a small difference in the scope of the disaster would be a huge difference in how bad the disaster is.
SN,
That is truly a fantastic and fitting point. I love it! Thank you for sharing – it really puts this Twain quote in context!
Yours,
David
Glad you “liked” the scenarios.