> Genes are useful because they are far more fixed and they are far easier to measure than many other things that could be measured. [...] It is especially use

> Genes are useful because they are far more fixed and they are far easier to measure than many other things that could be measured. [...] It is especially useful to look at genetics because it is (relatively) cheap to get a person's genetics and painless - whereas studying the microbiome is much more difficult and expensive. This reminds me of the joke about the drunk looking for his keys: >> [...] Noam Chomsky has a characteristically dry and precise version of the story: “Science is a bit like the joke about the drunk who is looking under a lamppost for a key that he has lost on the other side of the street, because that’s where the light is. It has no other choice.” >> So historians, mystics, scientists and drunks have something in common: they all tend to seek the truth where the process of seeking is easy, rather than where truth is. - https://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2016/03/the-streetlight-effect-a-metaphor-for-knowledge-and-ignorance.html https://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2016/03/the-street...