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Please don't do this. Substantial comments are much appreciated.

lisper 6y ago
The word you're looking for is "substantive", not "substantial." subtantive: important, serious, or related to real facts substantial: of ample or considerable amount, quantity, size IMHO, it is substantive to point out that a study produced an obvious result that everyone already knew to be true.
- ThrowawayR2 6y ago
  I'd say the comment runs afoul of the "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work." guideline.
  - lisper 6y ago
    Fair enough. So here's a less shallow dismissal: This study seems to me to produce an obvious result that no reasonable person would doubt even in the absence of data, and is therefore a complete waste of time and resources. Am I missing something?
    - mcguire 6y ago
      One could, of course, provide you with a stack of obvious ideas that no reasonable person would doubt in the absence of data...that are nonetheless wrong.
      - lisper 6y ago
        I doubt that very much. Can you give me a few examples? I can't imagine what such examples would even look like because in the absence of data I don't see how you could establish that they are false.
        mcguire 6y ago
        "...an obvious result that no reasonable person would doubt even in the absence of data...": Aw, c'mon, you can do it, too. The Sun (and other astronomical bodies) go around the Earth. Time (and space) passes at the same rate for everyone, everywhere. Here's another good one I just ran across: "Let me tell you about some findings from the literature on divorce. People who start their marriages with the most love and affection for their partners tend to have a decline in satisfaction over time, but are unlikely to divorce, while people who had poor relationship quality at the outset tend to eventually get divorced, especially once their children are grown. Does that seem obviously true? Wait, that’s not right. That’s not what the research showed. The results really showed that those super-happy couples quickly come crashing down in the early years of marriage, and if they divorced, they tended to do so within the first six years, while those miserable couples were equally likely to divorce early or late. Oh wait, I got it wrong again. These are the real results: Couples who were especially unhappy early in their marriage were the most likely to get divorced early on (within the first six years), whereas when later divorces (seven or more years into the marriage) were examined, it was the most blissfully happy newlyweds that were most likely to get divorced.1 Sure enough, when I wrote about these findings on my blog, one commenter stated "So prevalent and obvious, it's hard to believe anyone wasted time and money on yet another study telling us what we already knew." Ouch, makes you glad you're not the researchers who spent 20 years collecting that data." (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/close-encounters/201604/social-psychology-it-s-obvious-or-it-s-false https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/close-encounters/201...)
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- jhayward 6y ago
  Don’t put your words in my mouth, please. I said substantial. As in “weighty, solid, meaningful”.

The word you're looking for is "substantive", not "substantial." subtantive: important, serious, or related to real facts substantial: of ample or considerable amount, quantity, size IMHO, it is substantive to point out that a study produced an obvious result that everyone already knew to be true.

ThrowawayR2 6y ago
I'd say the comment runs afoul of the "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work." guideline.
- lisper 6y ago
  Fair enough. So here's a less shallow dismissal: This study seems to me to produce an obvious result that no reasonable person would doubt even in the absence of data, and is therefore a complete waste of time and resources. Am I missing something?
  - mcguire 6y ago
    One could, of course, provide you with a stack of obvious ideas that no reasonable person would doubt in the absence of data...that are nonetheless wrong.
    - lisper 6y ago
      I doubt that very much. Can you give me a few examples? I can't imagine what such examples would even look like because in the absence of data I don't see how you could establish that they are false.
      - mcguire 6y ago
        "...an obvious result that no reasonable person would doubt even in the absence of data...": Aw, c'mon, you can do it, too. The Sun (and other astronomical bodies) go around the Earth. Time (and space) passes at the same rate for everyone, everywhere. Here's another good one I just ran across: "Let me tell you about some findings from the literature on divorce. People who start their marriages with the most love and affection for their partners tend to have a decline in satisfaction over time, but are unlikely to divorce, while people who had poor relationship quality at the outset tend to eventually get divorced, especially once their children are grown. Does that seem obviously true? Wait, that’s not right. That’s not what the research showed. The results really showed that those super-happy couples quickly come crashing down in the early years of marriage, and if they divorced, they tended to do so within the first six years, while those miserable couples were equally likely to divorce early or late. Oh wait, I got it wrong again. These are the real results: Couples who were especially unhappy early in their marriage were the most likely to get divorced early on (within the first six years), whereas when later divorces (seven or more years into the marriage) were examined, it was the most blissfully happy newlyweds that were most likely to get divorced.1 Sure enough, when I wrote about these findings on my blog, one commenter stated "So prevalent and obvious, it's hard to believe anyone wasted time and money on yet another study telling us what we already knew." Ouch, makes you glad you're not the researchers who spent 20 years collecting that data." (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/close-encounters/201604/social-psychology-it-s-obvious-or-it-s-false https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/close-encounters/201...)
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
jhayward 6y ago
Don’t put your words in my mouth, please. I said substantial. As in “weighty, solid, meaningful”.