How not to drive into a lake
No doubt, you’ve used Google Maps for driving directions. No doubt, you’ve read or heard of people following Google Maps while driving their cars and then driving their car into a lake.
Google Maps doesn’t say, “We are right all of the time,” but for some, that’s what they expect. And for some of the people whose cars ended up in lakes, it’s what they accepted.
Yes, the app will be correct almost all of the time. But your skill in recognizing when it doesn’t apply is just as important as its ability to get you there.
Google Maps’ driving directions are a shortcut. They’re the shortcut to reading a map in detail and choosing amongst all possible routing options to get somewhere (which is how it was done before there were apps and GPS.) Google Maps gives you one main option and possibly a couple of alternate (but usually slower) ones.
Likewise, reports and reviews on science are shortcuts. They’re shortcuts to reading a study or studies in detail and coming to your own conclusions from all of the possible conclusions. They give you one conclusion; and unlike Google Maps, not usually more than one.
The thing to remember about research reports and reviews is this: they’re less reliable than Google Maps, because your journey in deciding how to treat/manage your patients or clients is not as straightforward as getting from A to B. Your ability to recognize when something doesn’t apply is just as important as the reviewer’s ability to make a conclusion for you.
If you think that you have a “go to” to replace the direction you’re driving, then someday you’re going to end up making a right hand turn into a lake.
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