As we seem to become more and more enamored by quantifying the unquantifiable, and increasingly finding comfort in the illusory certainty of numbers, I find this quote particularly relevant: “When you don’t have any data, you have to use reason.” Richard Feynman
-
-
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Feynman, ever the pessimist! ;-)
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
This Tweet is unavailable.
-
Only if you make up data to support the reasoning. A huge part of correct reasoning is admitting what you don't know and going from there.
- Show replies
-
-
-
Also relevant when we have too much data and it conflicts.
-
Yes! And outside of the "hard sciences" this is pretty much the norm.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
I would say Feynman is biased, because of physics. There, it's much easier to reason out of problems. Real world is much more messy and only on fundamental level follows precise mathematical rules. So there are more ways to reason in physics than in a messy real life.
-
1/ It's interesting how people seem to be interpreting what he said differently. Not saying others are wrong. But what I'm taking from it is that his point is there's plenty of situations where you don't have the all the research/math/statistically significant data you want,
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Awesome thread there. Thank you!
End of conversation
New conversation
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.