Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World
Carl T. Bergstrom
Top 10 Best Quotes
“To tell an honest story, it is not enough for numbers to be correct. They need to be placed in an appropriate context so that a reader or listener can properly interpret them.”
“adequate bullshit detection is essential for the survival of liberal democracy.”
“We tell stories to create impressions of ourselves in the eyes of others.”
“Participating on social media is only secondarily about sharing new information; it is primarily about maintaining and reinforcing common bonds.”
“Remember Goodhart’s law? “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”
“Nothing that you will learn in the course of your studies will be of the slightest possible use to you [thereafter], save only this, that if you work hard and intelligently you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole, purpose of education.”
“Machines are not free of human biases; they perpetuate them, depending on the data they’re fed.”
“The study found that the most successful headlines don’t convey facts, they promise you an emotional experience”
“Jargon may facilitate technical communication within a field, but it also serves to exclude those who have not been initiated into the inner circle of a discipline.”
“Calling bullshit is itself a performative utterance—and this observation is important for understanding what it means to call bullshit upon some claim. When I call bullshit, I am not merely reporting that I am skeptical of something you said. Rather, I am explicitly and often publicly pronouncing my disbelief. Why does this matter? Performative utterances are not idle talk. They are powerful acts, to be used with prudence. Calling bullshit is the same. Don’t call bullshit carelessly—but if you can, call bullshit when necessary.”
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