Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'. I've seen this a few times. I assume you mean anecdotes told by liars? Surely a plurality of true statements constitutes data? The strength of that data for interpretation or prediction is limited by the number of data points, for sure, but I don't really get why this aphorism is supposed to be true.
Because of the selection process. If you are trying to make a judgment about an entire population based on a small sample, the chance of getting a non-representative sample is already high. If the sample is selected on the basis of what sticks out in memory, the chance of it being representative is almost nil. Though an interesting anecdote or two can be considered data, they are notoriously unreliable as a basis for…
Anyway, I digress, anon.