Sep 1, 2018 · 1 min read
One more important myth about science. The myth that statistical results are better than anecdotal results. At it’s core, every element of a statistical result is an anecdotal result, usually one at opposition with the statistical result. We need to account for both in order to understand, not to put one above the other.
A clear example is treatment effectiveness (generally a statistical result) and cure (always an anecdotal result). Positive treatment results seldom point to cures — if the did they would not be measured. Cure results are not statistical unless we define cure clearly (a rare circumstance) and count cures vs not cures.
