4 ms·

Some people believe in data like other people believe in God. Data is meaningless without context and without knowing how reliable it is. PSA tests, for examp

• sseagull 3y ago
  Kinda related story about data and context: I saw a discussion on a website (ask a doctor type of stuff). A guy found that a lymph node in his neck seemed a little big. He found an academic article that stated about 50% of lymph nodes over a particular size at that location were cancerous, and he was panicking. He was gently informed by a doctor that he was missing an important context about the paper. I think about that a lot when people in various forums (including this one) cite academic papers or other information from areas they aren't experts in. They may be correct (technically correct), and have the correct data, but context might they be missing? (The 50% number was of samples sent to a lab. Doctors aren't in the habit of taking random healthy people's lymph nodes and sending them for biopsy, so those patients had other symptoms of lymphoma that triggered the need for a biopsy of suspicious lymph nodes.)