The best compliment I can give this post is that the core idea seems so obviously true that it seems impossible that I haven’t thought of or read it before. And yet, I don’t think I have.
Aside from the core idea that it’s scientifically useful to determine the short list of variables that fully determine or mediate an effect, the secondary claim is that this is the main type of science that is useful and the “hypothesis rejection” paradigm is a distraction. This is repeated a few times but not really proven, and it’s not hard to think of counterexamples: most medical research tries to find out whether a single molecule or intervention will ameliorate a single condition. While we know that most medical conditions depend on a whole slew of biological, environmental, and behavioral factors that’s not the most relevant thing for treatment. I don’t think this a huge weakness of the post, but certainly a direction to follow up on.
Finally, the post is clear and well written. I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of the digression about mutual information was, but everything else was concise and very readable.
The best compliment I can give this post is that the core idea seems so obviously true that it seems impossible that I haven’t thought of or read it before. And yet, I don’t think I have.
Aside from the core idea that it’s scientifically useful to determine the short list of variables that fully determine or mediate an effect, the secondary claim is that this is the main type of science that is useful and the “hypothesis rejection” paradigm is a distraction. This is repeated a few times but not really proven, and it’s not hard to think of counterexamples: most medical research tries to find out whether a single molecule or intervention will ameliorate a single condition. While we know that most medical conditions depend on a whole slew of biological, environmental, and behavioral factors that’s not the most relevant thing for treatment. I don’t think this a huge weakness of the post, but certainly a direction to follow up on.
Finally, the post is clear and well written. I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of the digression about mutual information was, but everything else was concise and very readable.