A statement whose negation nobody would defend carries no information, and functions as a signal to approve rather than as a claim.
The test Yudkowsky proposes is to reverse the statement and ask whether anyone would advocate the reverse. We must balance innovation with responsibility reverses to advocating irresponsible innovation, which nobody says, so the original conveys nothing. It identifies the specific emptiness in most mission statements, conference keynotes and political speeches.
In practice
- A value statement whose opposite no organisation would print has told employees nothing about what to do.
- A proposal endorsed by everyone in the room on first hearing has not been understood by anyone in the room.