On Fri, Apr 06, 2007 at 12:41:25PM -0400, Ron wrote:
3.based on personal observation, case study
reports, or random investigations rather than
systematic scientific evaluation: anecdotal evidence.
Here you even quote the appropriate definition before ignoring it.
In short, professional advice and opinions are
supposed to be considerably more rigorous and
analytical than anything "anecdotal". The alternative is "malpractice".
In any profession where malpractice is applicable, the profession
opinion had better be backed up by research rather than anecdote. I'm
not aware of any profession held to a "malpractice" standard which is
based on personal observation and random investigation rather than
formal methods.
studies. I respect that. Unfortunately the RW
is too fast moving and too messy to wait for a
laboratory style study to be completed before we
are called on to make professional decisions on
most issues we face within our work
IME I have to serve my customers in a timely
fashion that for the most part prohibits me from
waiting for the perfect experiment's outcome.
Which is what distinguishes your field from a field such as engineering
or medicine, and which is why waving the term "malpractice" around is
just plain silly. And claiming to have to wait for perfection is a red
herring. Did you record the numbers of disks involved (failed &
nonfailed), the models, the environmental conditions, the poweron hours,
etc.? That's what would distinguish anecdote from systematic study.
Agreed. OTOH, there's not supposed to be
anything casual, ill-considered, or low quality
about professionals giving professional opinions within their
fields of expertise. Whether numbers are explicitly involved or not.
If I go to an engineer and ask him how to build a strong bridge and he
responds with something like "Well, I always use steel bridges. I've
driven by concrete bridges that were cracked and needed repairs, and I
would never use a concrete bridge for a professional purpose." he'd lose
his license. You'd expect the engineer to use, you know, numbers and
stuff, not anecdotal observations of bridges. The professional opinion
has to do with how to apply the numbers, not fundamentals like 100 year
loads, material strength, etc.
What you're arguing is that your personal observations are a perfectly
good substitute for more rigorous study, and that's frankly ridiculous.
In an immature field personal observations may be the best data
available, but that's a weakness of the field rather than a desirable
state. 200 years ago doctors operated the same way--I'm glad they
abandoned that for a more rigorous approach. The interesting thing is,
there was quite a disruption as quite a few of the more established
doctors were really offended by the idea that their professional
opinions would be replaced by standards of care based on large scale
studies.
Mike Stone
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