gwern comments on Rationality Quotes December 2011 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Jayson_Virissimo 02 December 2011 06:01AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (577)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: gwern 07 December 2011 03:22:41AM 3 points [-]

Statistically significant? Well, I've seen psychology studies published with smaller Ns... The point is that that is way more solid evidence than the usual litany of anecdotage which is adduced as evidence for that thesis, which is rarely meant metaphorically. Usually when one sees someone remark about mathematicians and madness, they mean it quite literally. I have no reason to think Chesterton, that old contrarian Catholic, meant it any differently.