We must always ask who collected the data, how they collected it, and why they collected it.
Daniel
Daniel's notes on Calling Bullshit
Calling Bullshit by Jevin D. West and Carl T. Bergstrom
Notes 13
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13 notes
in reading orderThere is a vast amount of well-intentioned but scientifically flawed research out there.
One of the more insidious features of bullshit is that it weakens our ability to rely on the social fabric of trust.
A willingness to challenge cherished beliefs is not only an asset but is essential to our survival as a species.
Any statement about the world will be a mixture of the true, the false, and the uncertain.
The notion of 'alternative facts'—facts that are generated to support one's preconceived beliefs—is a dangerous manifestation of bullshit.
Data, and the evidence it provides, is always a surrogate for a world we cannot perfectly access.
Data should be thought of as evidence pertaining to a particular argument rather than as a set of facts that speak for themselves.
When we point out that something is bullshit, we are not engaging in a crude ad hominem attack; rather, we are identifying a failure of the evidence.
A common practice in science is to attempt to answer a more concrete question by addressing a less concrete one.
Failing to state your assumptions clearly is not just bad science, it's bullshit.
Remember that bullshit is not a quality of the data; it's a quality of the analysis or interpretation of the data.
Science is a process, and it often proceeds by fits and starts, sometimes even with leaps of inspiration.
Keep what you read, not just what you finished.
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