[ironmagma]

If you can’t, you can’t, and that’s fine. But people who can, should. Knowledge tends to become siloed, and we always need to work against that; I’m sure the writers of physics and sociology papers, by and large, would appreciate a careful eye from a mathematician or statistician. We don’t have to be experts in each other’s fields to contribute to each other’s projects, the same way you don’t need to have a computer science degree to find a bug in systemd.

Otherwise we end up with situations like this, where something is plainly obvious to physicists but somehow never makes its way into an epidemiologist’s brain. [1]

[1] https://www.wired.com/story/the-teeny-tiny-scientific-screwu...

[throwamon]

I responded specifically to the claim that "it should be analyzed by you" (which I assume means "regular people" since geoft didn't claim to be a scientist or mathematician or anything). So now you seem to be agreeing with me and disagreeing with what you said before and I quoted.

The article highlights a far more difficult problem, which is to get people who are knowledgeable in area A which happens to interface with area B to trust those who are experts in area B. Which is precisely the opposite of what happens when someone who isn't knowlegeable enough follows your advice and is unable to notice their own errors in interpretation and understanding.

So yeah, I'd rather stick to trusting the experts (in their respective areas) 99% of the time.

[ironmagma]

I think Neil Tyson has the right idea in his focus on promoting scientific literacy, which does not refer to "believing whatever scientists say." If a scientist says something surprising, we should be at least somewhat capable of verifying that the research says what they say it does. Will you be able to verify everything, or even most things? Of course not. But you will come out of it better than you would have remaining standing in ignorance.

> someone who isn't knowlegeable enough follows your advice and is unable to notice their own errors in interpretation and understanding

This happens even with experts in their own fields. That's why it is supposed to be the beginning of a dialogue between the reader and the writers, not a research project that happens in a vacuum. Science is a collaborative effort.