Why We Sleep: a tale of institutional failure
yngve.hoiseth.net
Why We Sleep: a tale of institutional failure
1–10 of 16 posts
Re: Why We Sleep: a tale of institutional failure
#2From a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38786253
Re: Why We Sleep: a tale of institutional failure
#3I've taken a look over the evidence and some of the examples. I am unimpressed. This reads like a very undergraduate teardown. Missing a bin in a histogram that maintains the general trend in a pop science book? My eyes roll into the back of my head. As per the longer teardown by Alexey Guzey, it sounds like he has 5 main contentions, all of which I would consider relatively inconsequential and points of academic, or interpretable debate. Storm in a tea cup.
Re: Why We Sleep: a tale of institutional failure
#4I've taken a look over the evidence and some of the examples. I am unimpressed. This reads like a very undergraduate teardown. Missing a bin in a histogram that maintains the general trend in a pop science book? My eyes roll into the back of my head. As per the longer teardown by Alexey Guzey, it sounds like he has 5 main contentions, all of which I would consider relatively inconsequential and points of academic, or…
Yeah, I haven't read the book but this analysis actually makes me want to do so. If the biggest issues that can be found with it are as described here, then I'd say it's likely to be in the top decile when it comes to rigorous pop science books.
Re: Why We Sleep: a tale of institutional failure
#5> Even though I take pride in my ability to adjust my opinions in the face of new evidence, it can really hurt, and it sure did this time. Now what should I believe? And what fragments of false belief were left behind in my mind? On top of that, I had to notify the people I gave the book to. When there are that many errors in a single chapter, who knows how many there might be in the rest of the book? It was clear to me that the book could not be trusted.
I think these are great questions. I say believe nothing. If you verify something, now you're getting closer. Personal experience is also the golden source - I do not dismiss it as 'merely anecdotal' - its actually the only thing of which it can be said "I know!"
> I think we should demand a lot from institutions and very little from individuals. Humans can be lazy, selfish, biased and greedy. They can also be also hard-working, altruistic, fair and generous. But the dark side of humans isn't going away any time soon. Institutions, however, can do a lot better than individuals. (The scientific community is an example of such an institution — despite individual scientists' many imperfections, science keeps progressing.)
And here I disagree. I don't demand from other individuals. But nor do I demand anything from institutions. In fact - I demand less from them! What are institutions except grouped individuals, only now with many opportunities to avoid accountability, and many incentives to do whatever it takes for money?
Re: Why We Sleep: a tale of institutional failure
#6I've taken a look over the evidence and some of the examples. I am unimpressed. This reads like a very undergraduate teardown. Missing a bin in a histogram that maintains the general trend in a pop science book? My eyes roll into the back of my head. As per the longer teardown by Alexey Guzey, it sounds like he has 5 main contentions, all of which I would consider relatively inconsequential and points of academic, or…
Read it, and similarly, it seemed to have all the hallmarks of some takedown more motivated by a quest for notoriety/popularity that any systemic failings in academic literature review.
It's an airport pop science book for goodness sake, it's not like fabricating results to get an article in Nature.
Re: Why We Sleep: a tale of institutional failure
#7I've taken a look over the evidence and some of the examples. I am unimpressed. This reads like a very undergraduate teardown. Missing a bin in a histogram that maintains the general trend in a pop science book? My eyes roll into the back of my head. As per the longer teardown by Alexey Guzey, it sounds like he has 5 main contentions, all of which I would consider relatively inconsequential and points of academic, or…
"undergraduate" appears here as a disparaging adverb?
Academia showed me that freshmen arrive green and wide eyed, but also filled with integrity and wondrous belief in science. Only after graduation, masters, doctorate and postdoc are they fully ground down into cynical, jaded, institutionalised husks. Before they have learned to play "institutional games" undergrads are the kids who see when the Emperor has no clothes.
Re: Why We Sleep: a tale of institutional failure
#8This is a nothingburger. If we were to hold this blog post to the same standard that they expect to hold the book to:
* The email exchange goes on about a single claim from another rebuttal from the reading of a single chapter that indulges in nitpicking on the interpretation rather than general ideas
* The WordPress blog, where clarifications were posted, is Matthew Walker's blog and this can be trivially verified[1]. Yet, the author first claimed no such clarification existed and then when directly linked to it, claimed no indication that it indeed was Matthew Walker's blog. Who is being lazy / disingenuous now ? (Note that Walker's blog directly links to Alexey Guzey's takedown).
[1] linked from his website https://www.sleepdiplomat.com/author
Re: Why We Sleep: a tale of institutional failure
#9I've taken a look over the evidence and some of the examples. I am unimpressed. This reads like a very undergraduate teardown. Missing a bin in a histogram that maintains the general trend in a pop science book? My eyes roll into the back of my head. As per the longer teardown by Alexey Guzey, it sounds like he has 5 main contentions, all of which I would consider relatively inconsequential and points of academic, or…
Read it, and similarly, it seemed to have all the hallmarks of some takedown more motivated by a quest for notoriety/popularity that any systemic failings in academic literature review. It's an airport pop science book for goodness sake, it's not like fabricating results to get an article in Nature.
> It's an airport pop science book for goodness sake, it's not like
fabricating results to get an article in Nature.
An article in Nature may be read by a few thousand people. An airport pop book will influence tens or hundreds of millions. Especially for health related subjects it's standard of truth ought to be a lot higher.
Re: Why We Sleep: a tale of institutional failure
#10I've taken a look over the evidence and some of the examples. I am unimpressed. This reads like a very undergraduate teardown. Missing a bin in a histogram that maintains the general trend in a pop science book? My eyes roll into the back of my head. As per the longer teardown by Alexey Guzey, it sounds like he has 5 main contentions, all of which I would consider relatively inconsequential and points of academic, or…
Yeah, I haven't read the book but this analysis actually makes me want to do so. If the biggest issues that can be found with it are as described here, then I'd say it's likely to be in the top decile when it comes to rigorous pop science books.
No, the book is riddled with issues. This is far from the only one. Have a read through https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/.