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One source is not evidence. This is the core rule I learned as a researcher. More often than not, reputable journalists will get it more right than wrong on ag

One source is not evidence. This is the core rule I learned as a researcher. More often than not, reputable journalists will get it more right than wrong on aggregate. On average, the numbers published by reputable journalists will be right and not misleading. These are some interesting examples, however, the core rule: "One source is not evidence" is probably more important here to remember. Read a variety of sources and articles. I often find that sometimes in the same paper they will contradict numbers. Then I know, the editor missed it.

PaulKeeble 4y ago
There are quite a lot of hidden singular sources and you have to be very wary of them. One such fake source is anything that gets leaked or comes out of government, it could be the very same person/source going to multiple news sites presenting multiple pieces of fabricated information. Its not uncommon for a lot of political news to be singular source, just because its on every news site citing multiple sources doesn't make it true. The other possibility is a chain where manipulation can take place in a non obvious way. For example reviews of PC hardware like CPUs on release day. It might appear as if you are reading many different sites with differing review methods but in practice all of them were likely provided a CPU and motherboard by the same manufacturer chain. Both AMD and Intel have been caught in the past providing golden samples for reviews and motherboard manufacturers auto overclocking boards. SSD manufacturers providing MLC for review and then switching to TLC NAND once it hits retail. There are so many scandals that involve this sort of thing that its very hard to trust reviews that aren't retail sourced and recently too. Reading multiple sources of news isn't enough, you have to analyse where it comes from and how it could have been manipulated and falsified based on where the chain of custody of the news item comes from, a much harder problem and largely impossible given how the news hides its sources.
- RandomWorker 4y ago
  True, you need to have a bit of a critical eye, good memory and reason from experience. It seems every hardware release promises the best and greatest. Such statements will be short lived because once many consumers start submitting their benchmark scores those tactics will be revealed.
  - danuker 4y ago
    Therefore don't buy the latest and "greatest". Wait for the benchmarks. Or build a "promise inflation" model of the manufacturers.

PaulKeeble 4y ago

There are quite a lot of hidden singular sources and you have to be very wary of them. One such fake source is anything that gets leaked or comes out of government, it could be the very same person/source going to multiple news sites presenting multiple pieces of fabricated information. Its not uncommon for a lot of political news to be singular source, just because its on every news site citing multiple sources doesn't make it true. The other possibility is a chain where manipulation can take place in a non obvious way. For example reviews of PC hardware like CPUs on release day. It might appear as if you are reading many different sites with differing review methods but in practice all of them were likely provided a CPU and motherboard by the same manufacturer chain. Both AMD and Intel have been caught in the past providing golden samples for reviews and motherboard manufacturers auto overclocking boards. SSD manufacturers providing MLC for review and then switching to TLC NAND once it hits retail. There are so many scandals that involve this sort of thing that its very hard to trust reviews that aren't retail sourced and recently too. Reading multiple sources of news isn't enough, you have to analyse where it comes from and how it could have been manipulated and falsified based on where the chain of custody of the news item comes from, a much harder problem and largely impossible given how the news hides its sources.

RandomWorker 4y ago
True, you need to have a bit of a critical eye, good memory and reason from experience. It seems every hardware release promises the best and greatest. Such statements will be short lived because once many consumers start submitting their benchmark scores those tactics will be revealed.
- danuker 4y ago
  Therefore don't buy the latest and "greatest". Wait for the benchmarks. Or build a "promise inflation" model of the manufacturers.