{"id":855,"date":"2011-07-18T22:08:56","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T03:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/?p=855"},"modified":"2011-07-18T22:42:05","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T03:42:05","slug":"it-is-what-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/2011\/07\/18\/it-is-what-it-is\/","title":{"rendered":"It is what it is"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a scientist who spends a lot of time looking at data, I sometimes feel that we venture into an area where we are in danger of over-interpreting<\/em> our results. On the one hand, it is a perfectly natural and human characteristic; to speculate and even use imagination to try and gain a deeper understanding of the complex world around us.<\/p>\n

Frequently, however–in my realm of science–such over-interpretation<\/em> can often be premature, and even detrimental if one gets locked into a specific mindset–an “idee fixe”–at too early a stage. Especially since our initial ideas so frequently turn out to be wrong.<\/p>\n

Consider a simple hypothesis posed as one sets out to dispel prove<\/del> test one’s idea. In my field, we usually need to gather a fair bit of data from casting a wide net of experiments before we can actually see a cohesive picture emerging. So initially, this requires some patience and the ability to suspend–at least temporarily–one’s speculations and over-interpretations<\/em> until enough information is out there on the table to propose a model.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, it is necessary to stop and say: “It is what it is”–otherwise, over-interpretation<\/em> can lead us to the following type of scenario as this brilliant sketch by Eric Idle and John Cleese<\/a> illustrates.<\/p>\n

Idle:<\/strong> “Jarrow United came of age in a European sense with an almost Proustian display of modern existentialist football, virtually annihilating, by midfield argument, the surely obsolescent defensive philosophy of Signor Alberto Franfrino.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Cleese:<\/strong> “Well, I hit the ball first time and it went in the back of the net.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a scientist who spends a lot of time looking at data, I sometimes feel that we venture into an area where we are in danger of over-interpreting our results. On the one hand, it is a perfectly natural and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,81,91,50],"tags":[371,368,369,373,367,113,370,372,83,374],"class_list":["post-855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-humor","category-research","category-science","tag-ball-into-the-back-of-the-net","tag-eric-idle","tag-european-football","tag-idee-fixe","tag-john-cleese","tag-monty-python","tag-philosophical-overtones","tag-proustian-display-of-modern-existentialist-football","tag-silliness","tag-thick-headed-footballers-and-scientists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}