Cargo Cult Science (1974)

>I say that’s also important in giving certain types of government advice. Supposing a senator asked you for advice about whether drilling a hole should be done in his state; and you decide it would he better in some other state. If you don’t publish such a result, it seems to me you’re not giving scientific advice. You’re being used. If your answer happens to come out in the direction the government or the politicians like, they can use it…

> there have been many experiments running rats through all kinds of mazes, and so on—with little clear result. But in 1937 a man named Young did a very interesting one. Has anyone found this paper? I searched a few years ago and couldn't find anything.

Everyone who cares about science has known his point for over 40 years now. But Psychology, the subject he was discussing, continued to not take figuring out how to replicate seriously until the recent replication crisis demonstrated exactly HOW bad it was in terms that they couldn't ignore. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis for more on that. And now it is a hot topic with lots of, "Look at what we've figured out about how to make our research better!" With very little…

Economics is for me the prime example, even more so than psychology. They layer mathamatical models upon models to make it look like "hard" science. But even the most basic assumptions are disputed and you can basically find an economist (even from a reputable institution) for pretty much any position about any topic. No economic theory has ever been found that would be capable to make even modest correct predictions (beyond very basic "rules of thumb" which pretty much have…