Binary Oasis

I’m a skeptic, perhaps to a fault sometimes. I’ll admit that when Katie mentioned that I should drink a lot of water, slowly, but all at one time (no stopping), that I didn’t believe it would work, but it seems to have worked.

This skepticism seems to have been hard-coded into me, or perhaps just instilled in me in at a relatively young age. The skepticism has also been cultivated by my scientific background and training. I believe that my skepticism is usually a good thing.

It’s very often not particularly easy to identify what helps to cure or alleviate a condition in a person. Should I eat peppers, or drink water, or hold my breath, or take Medicine X, or get more sleep, or get less sleep, or rest, or exercise? What works for someone may not work for someone else. Also, someone may believe that something has helped him, but it’s just the placebo effect, or it’s just a coincidence. (Just because something happened right after Event X doesn’t mean that the something caused Event X.) The disagreeing data between very intelligent scientists involved in multi-million dollars studies shows just how difficult it is to get right and to apply the data specifically and generally to people. That’s the macro level.

At the micro level, what can I do? When should I be skeptical? It’s not always clear, but I can think of a couple of instances in which it is a good idea:

* When the person or people presenting a service/idea/product have something to gain
* When the person or people presenting a service/idea/product doesn’t have effective data

Conversely, it is possible to be too skeptical. For instance:

* Deciding not to get married because you can’t prove that your prospective spouse will not eventually get tired of you and seek a divorce
* Expecting science to prove (or disprove) the existence of God
* Discounting all scientific studies since many disagree with each other or are proved to be invalid

I didn’t say it was easy to know when to be a skeptic, but try to apply the right dose.

Did you ever wonder what the deal is with the animals (and now other items also) on the O’Reilly technical books? Distributing the Future has an interview with the person who was originally behind the idea. Here’s the direct link.

Science Friday did a radio show on the politics of science. It felt a bit like Ira Flatow and Chris Mooney were able to gang up on Tom Bethell.

Wikipedia also has an article on the politicization of science.

It’s disappointing that neither of these sources could give a good balance to the other side of the debate, though both sides of the debate have common ground if they are both are intellectually honest. Some principles should guide us if we are to avoid the politicization of science:

* As students and disseminators of information and ideas, we need to be intellectually honest
* As receivers of information and ideas, we need to question what a particular person or group says if that particular person or group has an incentive for making a particular statement

It’s easiest to classify this as a war between Republican vs. Democrats or conservatives vs. liberals. Unfortunately, I can’t think of a better way to classify the debate in just one sentence.

I follow many rabbit trails during the week, and here’s one destination that I came to within the past week: www.43folders.com. Merlin Mann has the personal quirks that most of us have, but he also appears to have the insight to understand what the quirks are and what to do about it.

Update: I’d stop short of recommending him, though I do like what appears to be his most fundamental idea: develop a system to make sure that you get done what needs to get done.

This is a little dated, but I am now (yes, this very moment) listening to a good edition of Science Friday. This one is on “Physics and Music.” Check it out.

It’s been a productive Monday. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I didn’t really work much this weekend?

Sometimes I hammer myself for not working when I have things to do, but on the flip side, it’s good to enforce some physical and mental rest also.

Here are a couple of other possibilities:

1) I didn’t have any caffeine this weekend
2) I had a deadline
3) I kept my mind engaged with some word puzzles

I just heard an intriguing podcast on The Motley Fool interviewing Michael Lewis, author of “Lessons on the Game of Life.” From the interview it sounds like a good read, full of some tough issues surrounding so-called performance management and children.