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I don't disagree, but it's a false dichotomy: we don't have to choose between the statistical view and boots on the ground. All forms of useful knowledge should

by epgui 4y ago

I don't disagree, but it's a false dichotomy: we don't have to choose between the statistical view and boots on the ground. All forms of useful knowledge should be sought. Human brains are heavily biased towards anecdotes and stories, as opposed to cold calculated statistics... So that's the baseline we're starting from.

smitty1e 4y ago
> I don't disagree, but it's a false dichotomy: we don't have to choose between the statistical view and boots on the ground. All forms of useful knowledge should be sought. Human brains are heavily biased towards anecdotes and stories, as opposed to cold calculated statistics... Precisely my point. We can't do those statistics without narrowing the discussion to a finite set of dimensions that *may* be representative. The more one works toward the doctorate, the more one realizes the squishiness of efforts to generalize from the nifty p-value to the population at large. Especially where life-altering decisions are involved. Those ascribing to themselves vast authorities are far too insulated from negative consequences. More skin in the game, please.