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The conclusion is a bit at odds with the rest of the piece: > And that’s interesting. When stupid people make a mistake, that’s no big deal. But when brilliant
by kqr 4y ago
The conclusion is a bit at odds with the rest of the piece:
> And that’s interesting. When stupid people make a mistake, that’s no big deal. But when brilliant people make a mistake, it’s worth noting.
Maybe not. In the words of the author,
> maybe these are real effects being discovered, but you should at least consider the possibility that you’re chasing noise. When a striking result appears in the dataset, it’s possible that this result does not represent an enduring truth or even a pattern in the general population but rather is just an artifact of a particular small and noisy dataset.
- pessimizer 4y agoClearly brilliant people saying that something that later turns out to be noise is statistically undeniable signal is worth noting. I'm not sure what you're seeing here.
- kqr 4y agoI don't think it is worth noting. Brilliant people make mistakes too, just not at the same rate as the rest of us. That one or even a few make the a specific mistake means nothing -- it's statistical fluke, even if it seems noteworthy in isolation.