Important and necessary read in our age, outstanding in every way. Will make you smarter, and a better citizen, immediately.
tl;dr: these are just the headlines.
• Recognize that bullshitters are different from liars, and be alert for both.
• Upon encountering a piece of information, in any form, ask, “Who is telling me this? How does he or she know it? What is he or she trying to sell me?”
• Remember that if a data-based claim seems too good to be true, it probably is.
• Use Enrico Fermi’s guesstimation techniques to check the plausibility of data-based claims.
• Watch out for unfair comparisons.
• Remember that correlation doesn’t imply causation.
• Beware of Big Data hubris.
• Know that machines can be racist (or sexist, or otherwise prejudiced).
And last, the finishing note:
• Mind the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle: the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.
[from The New Yorker]
