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No, there's really no answer to the question of why aerodynamics isn't important for a lunar lander.

The answer you give to that, as you imply in a later paragraph, is really an answer to the question "if a typical person thought aerodynamics was important for a lunar lander, why would they be mistaken?" It's fairly easy to answer that, at least with respect to our peers; we're used to vehicles designed with wind resistance in mind. But this is not the answer to the question of why it's not the case that aerodynamics is necessary for a lunar lander.

Similarly, though there is no answer to the question of why it's not the case that speed is necessary in exploratory programming, I could, if I knew why the OP mistakenly thought it was, have explained why he was wrong. But while I could guess why one of my peers might mistakenly think aerodynamics mattered for a lunar lander, I have no idea why the OP might think speed mattered for exploratory programming.

Sigh. What a huge waste of time this thread has been. I feel like I've just spent an hour trying to convince someone that the Monte Carlo fallacy was false.

OK, I accept that if we're going to be pedantic (and honestly, being pedantic is one of my favourite hobbies too) then the question would really be "if a typical person thought aerodynamics was important for a lunar lander, why would they be mistaken?"

In fact, one could clarify the question a little for the benefit of somebody who couldn't see why anybody would be so confused as to think that aerodynamics had anything to do with the moon, by saying: "Given that aerodynamics are important for many [though not all] vehicles, what properties of a lunar lander distinguishes it from those other vehicles in such a way as to make aerodynamics irrelevant?"

So ahem, bearing that in mind, given that speed is important in many [though not all] programming tasks, what properties distinguish exploratory programming from those other types of programming in such a way as to make speed irrelevant?

I'm not convinced yet, but I don't want to make this argument longer. It wasn't my intention to make you or anybody lose time (sorry if I did, truly!), I just thought you were pointing something that failed to be true and that I could correct you in a friendly manneer. Your comment is interesting and I'll think about it, but as far as I could see it seems to work only in particular cases and not in all negative cases, as you had pointed before. But I need to think more about it to be sure. Thanks for your time and for your explainations.

Why isn't the Monte Carlo fallacy true?

;~)

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