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I have questions for Quanta Magazine -- this is probably a shot in the dark, but if anyone can ask them a few questions, here would be three of mine: 1. Have i

by xpe 2y ago

I have questions for Quanta Magazine -- this is probably a shot in the dark, but if anyone can ask them a few questions, here would be three of mine: 1. Have independent researchers evaluated the effectiveness of Quanta Magazine at their mission? [1] 2. In the case of this article, did the editors consider including visualization? If not, why not? 3. Does Quanta have interactive designers and/or data scientists on staff? How many? Why not more? ## Background & Biases I'm trying to overcome my disappointment in Quanta by being curious about their mission, organization, and constraints. I am glad they exist, but sometimes your "closest allies" can be one's harshest critics. I'm greatly troubled by the level of scientific, mathematical, and rational understanding among the denizens of the world. But for some reason, the state of science writing bothers me more. It would seem that I hold out hope that science writers could do better. This may be unfair, I admit. Anyhow, rather than just bash Quanta for being, say, not as good at the best math blogs or YouTube channels (such as 3Blue1Brown), I really want to figure out (a) if I'm missing something; or (2) if they are actively trying to improve; and (3) what we can all learn from their experience. [1] From https://www.quantamagazine.org/about/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/about/ : "Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent online publication launched by the Simons Foundation in 2012 to enhance public understanding of science. Why Quanta? Albert Einstein called photons “quanta of light.” Our goal is to “illuminate science.”"

xpe 2y ago
This is not a complaint. For people that downvoted, may I ask why? To be clear, I'm not asking people to _explain_ the downvotes; I am only asking the people that actually downvoted. Here are some guesses: - Are my questions too harsh or unfair? Off-topic? - Do you not like that I openly admit my priors? - You hold it against me that I don't think science journalism is very good? - Do you think Quanta is of high quality? - ... unique? Not worth challenging? - ... doing all it can? - As a point of comparison, have you looked at how many IX people and data scientists other news organizations have? - Am I expecting too much? I'm genuinely curious. Persuade me that I'm missing something. I'm open to it. For what it is worth, I've attended many events associated with the Simons Institute; I've never found an organization like it. But I don't hold any organization up as above criticism. I have a feeling that Simons could be doing much more with Quanta. To me, the downvotes without comments (above) are likely informative, but not for the reasons you might think. They suggests people want to express disapproval, but think a response is not warranted or would take too much time. But why? My hunch is that I've struck a nerve. When people are uncomfortable, they often downvote. Sacred cows. Confirmation bias. Both are strong, even when you know that these things are cognitive errors. All in all, the downvotes may well suggest that people have huge irrational responses and/or blind spots around this.

by xpe 2y ago

xpe 2y ago

This is not a complaint. For people that downvoted, may I ask why? To be clear, I'm not asking people to _explain_ the downvotes; I am only asking the people that actually downvoted. Here are some guesses: - Are my questions too harsh or unfair? Off-topic? - Do you not like that I openly admit my priors? - You hold it against me that I don't think science journalism is very good? - Do you think Quanta is of high quality? - ... unique? Not worth challenging? - ... doing all it can? - As a point of comparison, have you looked at how many IX people and data scientists other news organizations have? - Am I expecting too much? I'm genuinely curious. Persuade me that I'm missing something. I'm open to it. For what it is worth, I've attended many events associated with the Simons Institute; I've never found an organization like it. But I don't hold any organization up as above criticism. I have a feeling that Simons could be doing much more with Quanta. To me, the downvotes without comments (above) are likely informative, but not for the reasons you might think. They suggests people want to express disapproval, but think a response is not warranted or would take too much time. But why? My hunch is that I've struck a nerve. When people are uncomfortable, they often downvote. Sacred cows. Confirmation bias. Both are strong, even when you know that these things are cognitive errors. All in all, the downvotes may well suggest that people have huge irrational responses and/or blind spots around this.