[nerfhammer]

You know that anecdotal interviews are a fairly bad way to collection information, right? This is why humanity developed double-blind studies, statistics etc. We can actually quantify the probabilities of these side effects.

[xenophanes]

You know that you can't do double blind studies of stuff with such obvious effects, right? Anyone taking it instead of a sugar pill knows which pill they got.

[Jach]

If you read some self-blinding studies for things like modafinil et al. you'll see this isn't always the case. (They get surprised when they find out at the end of the experiment cycle that a particular pill on a particular day was just a sugar pill.) Placebo effects are weird. In any case while the plural of anecdotes is not "data" I still think anecdotes are valuable.

[nerfhammer]

Let's discard all statistical approaches to research then

Gut reactions and vague impressions will get us by, just like they always have

[xenophanes]

Let's find applicable ones that work for our research, instead of always saying "double blind" without thinking about it.