Bad Advice: How to Survive and Thrive in an Age of Bullshit

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It is rarely necessary to look into the “black box”—the authors’ term for complex equations, algorithms, or scientific processes—when the problem with bullshit is often the data that feeds into the black box. Skepticism is important, and so I applaud these professors in their mission to fight BS, and much of what they talk about is important and true.

De números e fatos distorcidos a análises exageradamente complicadas para esconder uma conclusão que não se condiz com a realidade. Creating "ducks" where the data doesn't fit the graph or "glass slippers" where data has been cut to fit a specified visual representation. I had to read small portions at a time (and sometimes re-read them) but it makes a lot of sense to me how we as a society are so easily manipulated by modern bullshit. I'm disappointed because I was looking for a book on how to beat the very dangerous bullshit threatening the world today (in areas like pandemics).Studies have shown,” he says, right at the start of the book, “that you will live longer after heart failure if your partner feels confident about your condition. Wittgenstein, apparently, was disgusted: ‘You don’t know what a dog that has been run over feels like.

In case anyone doesn't have the time to read the book, they can check out the authors' INFO 198 lecture series at UW iSchool.I have heard about organisations that encourage employees to walk across hot coals, take military assault courses, and guide a raft down dangerous rapids. And if the AI has to make some decisions based on its ability to tell a picture of a cat from a picture of a dog, it can only make those decisions rationally if it assesses its own skill accurately. Not just because you might not choose the right statistical function, but rather because you probably are never going to be given the actual data anyway, just the conclusion. The philosopher Harry Frankfurt at Princeton University defined bullshit as talk that has no relationship to the truth. The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) non-exhaustive list of debunked claims numbers more than 187, while Wikipedia’s list of bogus cures run from “energy-based” to “spiritual healing”.

To explain the paucity of evidence for their claims, purveyors of quack remedies accuse the medical and scientific community of suppressing cures for cancer. Full of useful examples, ways of tackling it (including 'get off the internet'), and memorable quotes. She's been featured on Real Housewives of New Jersey, Millionaire Matchmaker, Steve, Watch What Happens Live, The Dr. While it’s relatively easy to identify old-school bullshit based on flowery language and empty rhetoric, new-school bullshit is more insidious and sophisticated with its use of statistics, charts, graphs, and scientific-sounding claims. Rather, this book explains that the black boxes of statistical analysis can remain mostly obscure to you, and even so, you can still spot bullshit.The authors do distinguish outright lying – where the liar goes to some length to make their lie believable - from bullshitting, where the shitter doesn’t even care whether you believe them or not, but that isn’t the main point of the book. Very definitely a book that should be issued to everyone, although what it doesn't tackle is the people who are absolutely determined to believe bullshit because it suits them better than the truth. One of my favourite bits of this book – and it is clearly among the authors’ favourite bits too, since they repeat it so often – is the idea that ‘if it seems too good or too bad to be true, it probably is’.

And, as you say, the attempt to dress up psychological experiments in scientific clothes is so often misleading.By explaining complex principles and showing the difference between causation and correlation, the authors give the rear tools to use to help navigate today's headlines, social media posts, and myths.