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> If you take that model seriously, Usain Bolt could have been anybody in the entire history of mankind. No model is perfect, but I don’t have the slightest cl

• tgv 3y ago
  Because it fits by multiplying random variables. It cannot explain why records are improving, i.e. why Usain Bolt didn't live 100 years ago.
  • suavesito 3y ago
    It can explain it. Better training and better equipment are (at least) two variables that improve people timings. Maybe a century ago there was an Usain Bolt, just didn't had neither the proper training, nor equipment, and those low factors avoided better timings.
    • iLoveOncall 3y ago
      And nutrition of course.
    • tgv 3y ago
      Except the model was fitted on people from the same period in the same region. Also, Ethiopian runners would be a counterargument. It's just reading way too much in a model that probably was there before the data. Seeing how everybody defends it as "learning", the example was sought to be described by the model.