#raisingheretics — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #raisingheretics, aggregated by home.social.
-
The average might be useful, but it can never describe an individual.
-
What we can build this way is a world where policy is evidence based. Where we make data informed decisions, while understanding that the data isn’t perfect. Where kids are empowered to learn all of the skills they need to solve problems in their own communities. Where technological solutions are rationally evaluated, rather than uncritically worshipped.
https://adsei.org/2024/11/23/from-hypnotised-to-heretic-immunising-society-against-misinformation/
-
What I love about projects like this is the opportunity for students to consider issues that don’t normally impact them, and then quantify them, and come up with ways to improve those numbers.
https://adsei.org/2024/07/08/using-data-science-to-investigate-discrimination-part-1-mobility/
-
Chatbots are not capable of understanding, or analysis, or even differentiating between truth and fiction. All they can do is fit together something that looks like language. Which makes it desperately worrying when teachers use them for marking, lawyers use them for coming up with arguments to use in court, or they get used for anything requiring analysis or accuracy.
https://adsei.org/2024/06/27/the-little-chatbot-that-couldnt/
-
When you penalise wrong answers, you build in a sense of shame and failure to being wrong that most people never get over. It leads to cheating, to covering up of mistakes, and to avoiding doing things where being wrong is a possibility.
How about, instead, we make it the default that you assume that you will be wrong in numerous ways. We make it […] -
In March 2024 I shared a survey online to see how covid cautious people are, and whether there’s a correlation between levels of caution and number of covid infections. The resulting dataset is rich, complex, and deeply flawed (like all surveys and most real datasets!). There’s scope for purely statistical investigations, and deep discussions […]
-
“The rise of populism has been substantial across the advanced world, indeed across developing countries as well. So those of us who believe in data need to be strong proponents of the publication of those data even when it produces results that make us uncomfortable.
-
“We do not teach people that making mistakes is not just right, but it’s the only way of learning. It’s the only way of becoming better.”
Honestly, I want to turn this whole episode into pull quotes! Go listen!https://adsei.org/podcast/michael-brand-on-the-science-of-data-science/
-
We could easily spend years talking about all the possible problems with data, but that’s not particularly helpful when you have a dataset, or someone else’s analysis, in front of you here and now. So what are some simple questions you can ask about quantitative data to figure out whether you can trust it or not?
-
The way we define the data we measure can completely change the results that we get.
-
How smart are smart watches? How meaningful is their health tracking? Have we been fooled by another shiny toy?
https://adsei.org/2023/11/11/our-misplaced-faith-in-smart-watches/