5 ms·
It's always funny how people are eager to cite the good examples in their life, but totally forget the family that died early. Just walk into any sort of care
by brnt 2y ago
It's always funny how people are eager to cite the good examples in their life, but totally forget the family that died early.
Just walk into any sort of care facility for the elderly to understand that bias.
- stonethrowaway 2y agoIf more people did this maybe everyone could tone it down a bit and go back to, “we don’t quite yet know” rather than having every one of these threads filled with “survivorship bias!!” nonsense.
- pclmulqdq 2y agoPeople mistake probability for certainty too readily. If you show me someone who is 400 lbs at 29 and someone who is 150 lbs at the same age, I would take an even-odds bet on the 150 lb person dying later. I think you would, too. I could be wrong, and there's a lot of uncertainty there, but that doesn't mean that there's absolutely no link between health and lifespan.
- brnt 2y agoOf course there is, but there's a huge amount of noise too. Signal below the noise floor can't be eyeballed.
- Tade0 2y agoNow that I have the opportunity, note how I omitted my paternal grandfather. He was a surgeon and died aged 59. Kidney failure was the direct cause IIRC, but in reality a career of stressful overwork. They named one particularly short street in one small city after him in honour of his achievements in setting up healthcare infrastructure directly after WW2.