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the most frequently used words tend to be the most irregular. they resist regularization bc their unusual/high-energy forms are constantly reinforced. switching-costs or smth.
eg we say "man/men", "go/went", "eat/ate" instead of "-/mans", "-/goed", "-/eated".
related hypothesis, but for different/additional reasons:
paradox of foundational neglect: the core tenets of a paradigm tend to be the least optimized.
technical debt / pleiotropy: complex ancestral dependencies are locked in place.
also, the paradox of expert testimony: experts on [big-if-true set of not-too-implausible claims] tend to be v selected for belief in those claims, so supporting arguments wrt those claims tend to sound more impressive (unless it's a rly dumb set of claims).
plus, if u just defer to experts, u will end up believing a whole lot of weird stuff for which experts are asymmetrically selected.
mans, i rly tried to mk that sentence sensicle… but proper sensicleness wud require paragraphs. 🍵