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Because their anecdote is personal to them, and affects their decisions. They can both be affected thereby and able to point out other people shouldn't take th
by mst 10y ago
Because their anecdote is personal to them, and affects their decisions.
They can both be affected thereby and able to point out other people shouldn't take their experience as universal at the same time.
Similarly, I've always had a wonderful experience with thinkpads but I don't believe the people who've had bad experiences should necessarily buy another one.
- baddox 10y ago> Because their anecdote is personal to them, and affects their decisions. That's just rephrasing my question. I asked why it affects their decision. You seem to be implying that it is sensible to operate on your own anecdotal experiences as if they carry statistical significance, but that it is not sensible to do the same with other people's anecdotal experiences. But the reason anecdotal evidence ought not be treated as statistically significant data isn't that the anecdotes may be lies or mistaken memories. The reason is that anecdotal evidence by definition was not gathered systematically and therefore may not represent the entire set of data.