A version of this first appeared as a post on StatisticsBlog.com in 2010. I edited that website for about seven years. It’s presented here as a guide to spotting the epistemological rot that seems endemic to our Dim Age, especially among those who scream the loudest about trusting “the science.”
#1 was enjoyable to see. Invoking Occam's Razor as a "Scientific Principle" has had a tendency to trigger me in the past. I prefer to frame it as a "Problem Solving Rule of Thumb" or even just a method for doing research in an economically efficient manner, given researchers have limited resources.
I find the Ufology field hard to follow because of the low signal to noise ratio. Lots of people who have stumbled across a legitimate conspiracy theory then go on to make the mistake of extrapolating too far. Suddenly they see everything as a conspiracy, they get very paranoid, and critical thinking evaporates if it were ever there to begin with.
So far, one of the better resources I've found was Richard Dolan at https://richarddolanmembers.com/. Do you have any recommended resources?
#1 was enjoyable to see. Invoking Occam's Razor as a "Scientific Principle" has had a tendency to trigger me in the past. I prefer to frame it as a "Problem Solving Rule of Thumb" or even just a method for doing research in an economically efficient manner, given researchers have limited resources.
I find the Ufology field hard to follow because of the low signal to noise ratio. Lots of people who have stumbled across a legitimate conspiracy theory then go on to make the mistake of extrapolating too far. Suddenly they see everything as a conspiracy, they get very paranoid, and critical thinking evaporates if it were ever there to begin with.
So far, one of the better resources I've found was Richard Dolan at https://richarddolanmembers.com/. Do you have any recommended resources?