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Science is a strong-link problem

experimental-history.com

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Re: Science is a strong-link problem

#11

Post by currymj »

jakobnissen wrote: post #7

I work as a scientist. I'm not sure I agree science is a strong-link problem. Rather, it contains both strong- and weak-link problems. A lot of science work consist of what my scientist mother calls "bread work" - validation of existing techniques, building a general corpus of knowledge, maintaining databases with useful information and so on. These is weak-link work. A bad quality database will undermine any researc…

agree strongly. in the long term, for society, it’s probably true that bad science will just be forgotten.

in the medium term, those “weak links”, whether due to mistakes or fraud, can derail an entire area and prevent the strong link papers from being written.

Re: Science is a strong-link problem

#12

Post by cadamsdotcom »

It’s great to put names to these concepts but it’s a false dichotomy. It doesn't follow that just because you need to eliminate the worst, that you need to also encourage the best.

There are certainly problems where you want to eliminate (or minimize) the worst outcomes while also facilitating the hit-it-out-of-the-park game-changers. Solving poverty shouldn’t preclude providing people opportunities to get rich by changing the world for the better.

There are also problems where it doesn’t matter what happens at either end. Show up to marathon for example and no one minds how well you do - just to give it a go is great! There’s no certification as a marathon runner and there’s also gold medals for the fastest marathon runners.

All in all this article is arguing that problems can be plotted on a single axis of strong or weak problems, but it’s more like a 2x2 matrix (or a 2-dimensional area if you want gradations.)

Re: Science is a strong-link problem

#13

Post by amadeuspagel »

Metaphors matter[1].

"Strong-link problem" is an oxymoron.

Any kind of chain is a "weak-link problem".

If an individual scientific work stands on its own, if it's not a link that is part of a chain, it can't be a strong link. If it is a link, than it can also be a weak link, making science a "weak-link problem".

In The Study of History, Lord Acton referd to "shining precepts which are the registered property of every school"[2].

> learn as much by writing as by reading; be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites; keep men and things apart; guard against the prestige of great names; see that your judgments are your own; and do not shrink from disagreement; no trusting without testing; be more severe to ideas than to actions; do not overlook the strength of the bad cause of the weakness of the good; never be surprised by the crumbling of an idol or the disclosure of a skeleton; judge talent at its best and character at its worst; suspect power more than vice, and study problems in preference to periods.

The point that this article makes doesn't seem more then this "shining precept" that was a cliché even in 1895, but with an absurdly confusing metaphor.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphors_We_Live_By

[2]: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_...

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