I take your word for it that you’re naïve about Lynn’s work on race and IQ. I don’t fully buy into the idea that defensive writing is bad per se, but I won’t litigate that here. I don’t think the central errors I was criticising are relevant to this. Briefly:
If you’re going to present data, you should critically engage with the source of that data. Correlation with another source without critically engaging with that source either is meaningless. For instance, that website states: “Often surprisingly but scientifically proven, a warmer climate badly affects the intelligence quotient.” This is not an honest interpretation of the literature nor a coherent account of the scientific method.
Presenting data without any context around that data strikes me as a strange choice at best. I don’t really believe that you think there is no interesting conclusions that might be drawn: why else did you post it? Surely you think there is something interesting to be said about it? Data itself is inherently meaningless, but from its interpretation we can make interesting observations. I therefore think you should at least present relevant context around data, and state why you think it is interesting, so discussion can proceed. The alternative, especially around such a controversial topic, is the result here: confused commenters trying to tease out why you would post this data but not seem inclined to share what conclusions you are drawing from it.
To be totally clear, I believe you that you don’t find this interesting for issues relating to race, I just don’t think given that debate informs an understanding of both the data and its context, that it should be ignored. Unfortunately, information doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
If you’re going to present data, you should critically engage with the source of that data.
why else did you post it? Surely you think there is something interesting to be said about it?
I agree further engaging with the quality of the data would improve the post. However, this does not necessarily imply that I should have engaged more with the data. I had done this analysis for other purposes, and thought that posting this may be better than nothing. I should have tagged the post as “Personal blog” instead of the default “Front page” (I was unaware of the tab “Personal blog”, but will have it in mind for similar posts in the future).
Data itself is inherently meaningless, but from its interpretation we can make interesting observations
I would say data is inherently meaningful. For example, I think the data explorers and graphs from OWID convey lots of useful information. However, interpretation is also valuable to e.g. explain data in plain language, clarify what we can and cannot infer from them, pose further work questions, etc. (so reading articles from OWID besides just checking graphs leads to a better understanding).
I take your word for it that you’re naïve about Lynn’s work on race and IQ. I don’t fully buy into the idea that defensive writing is bad per se, but I won’t litigate that here. I don’t think the central errors I was criticising are relevant to this. Briefly:
If you’re going to present data, you should critically engage with the source of that data. Correlation with another source without critically engaging with that source either is meaningless. For instance, that website states: “Often surprisingly but scientifically proven, a warmer climate badly affects the intelligence quotient.” This is not an honest interpretation of the literature nor a coherent account of the scientific method.
Presenting data without any context around that data strikes me as a strange choice at best. I don’t really believe that you think there is no interesting conclusions that might be drawn: why else did you post it? Surely you think there is something interesting to be said about it? Data itself is inherently meaningless, but from its interpretation we can make interesting observations. I therefore think you should at least present relevant context around data, and state why you think it is interesting, so discussion can proceed. The alternative, especially around such a controversial topic, is the result here: confused commenters trying to tease out why you would post this data but not seem inclined to share what conclusions you are drawing from it.
To be totally clear, I believe you that you don’t find this interesting for issues relating to race, I just don’t think given that debate informs an understanding of both the data and its context, that it should be ignored. Unfortunately, information doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
Thanks for clarifying.
I agree further engaging with the quality of the data would improve the post. However, this does not necessarily imply that I should have engaged more with the data. I had done this analysis for other purposes, and thought that posting this may be better than nothing. I should have tagged the post as “Personal blog” instead of the default “Front page” (I was unaware of the tab “Personal blog”, but will have it in mind for similar posts in the future).
I would say data is inherently meaningful. For example, I think the data explorers and graphs from OWID convey lots of useful information. However, interpretation is also valuable to e.g. explain data in plain language, clarify what we can and cannot infer from them, pose further work questions, etc. (so reading articles from OWID besides just checking graphs leads to a better understanding).