Why does this seem like such an odd idea to people? I overheard a girl here @ TAM complaining: “Everyone says they like Massimo, but I don’t. Why should he get to say that only scientists should do scientific statistical analysis?”
Really? Why? He told you- you’re not trained or educated in it, and even if you are in one form of science, that does not guarantee you will be able to form valid conclusions regarding any other forms.
The hubby does stress testing and deals with that kind of data, where I do behavioral intervention data. We could not trade places with one another, and that’s fine! Why should either of us have any technical know-how about the others’ profession or specific skill sets? And why should it bother us to be aware of this?
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I’ve stumbled over this post a few times and I don’t know why I waited until now to comment.
And why should it bother us to be aware of this?
Because we’re proud (arrogant). The girl you overheard? She missed the point. You didn’t. That hubris bug gets into everything, including our ability to be made aware of our own dances with it.
Nice, concise, and clear piece.
Hey, thanks! (Your comment got sent to a spam filter for some reason- but I pulled it out of there when I saw it…)
I just wonder what the heck is wrong with people like that- it doesn’t mean you’re dumb or worse than anyone else… Massimo even pointed out that when he needs his car fixed, he goes to a mechanic because that person is the expert on his car, not him. Everyone knows these things and encounters them on a daily basis, but they don’t want to be reminded?
Actually, this is a slightly more subtle issue. It really depends on what doing science consists of. For example, in my own field (mathematics which is arguably not a science), there are still substantial contributions from non-mathematicians. That’s ok to some extent because the matter self-verifies. In some other areas of science, non-professionals can do good work if they are careful. The real problem is thinking that the opinions of non-scientists can be anywhere near as important as those of scientists when the issues are big issues that involve looking at lots of literature (e.g. global warming, importance of neutral drift in speciation).