If you search for 'sensitive' on the BSA website you will find a critique by Per Alm of a 2005 article. Basically he tells us the figures are rubbish. Don't stop there though: go on to the article below about adults being sensitive. No figures given but the ideas are well worth looking at.
For people who give statistical probabilities on very small numbers be very sceptical and always ask the sample size. Freak waves happen. You can flip 10 heads in a row: it is possible - watch Derren Brown. Lightening does strike twice. Also worth asking what exactly do the figures mean.
Be careful of what I say just as I am usually sceptical of Per Alm's conclusions.
By the way: is any of the stuff on this blog helpful on a daily basis rather than just occasionally interesting?
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Mind over white matter???
Further to my last post:
Have any of you read Mind Over White Matter on the BSA site?
The scientists have jumped from mapping water to mapping nerve bundles. These are not the same but the conclusions depend on their being the same. Then an exciting jump is made to stating that nerve bundles are 'disrupted: this is logical bilge and shows that some folk will believe anything the MR sales people tell them. Remember MR reconstruction relies on computers and what has been your experience of computer sales staff?
There is no way, at present, of mapping nerve bundles.
And another piece of nonsense is to equate mind and brain. Not the same. But a nice selling headline for the article - MR salesmen do the same thing.
Don't believe everything you read in the literature; scientific or sales.
Have any of you read Mind Over White Matter on the BSA site?
The scientists have jumped from mapping water to mapping nerve bundles. These are not the same but the conclusions depend on their being the same. Then an exciting jump is made to stating that nerve bundles are 'disrupted: this is logical bilge and shows that some folk will believe anything the MR sales people tell them. Remember MR reconstruction relies on computers and what has been your experience of computer sales staff?
There is no way, at present, of mapping nerve bundles.
And another piece of nonsense is to equate mind and brain. Not the same. But a nice selling headline for the article - MR salesmen do the same thing.
Don't believe everything you read in the literature; scientific or sales.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Another book - highly recommended
Gerd Gigerenzer: Gut Feelings. About heuristics or underlying rules we have for doing things.
Good few pages on the idea of trusting the unconscious mind and not second guessing. If we get an expert to think about what she is doing as she is doing it it goes haywire. Remind you of anything? Well worth reading for anyone PWS or not. Not technical but properly scientifically based and an easy read.
Get it from the library or Amazon.
He also has a really good one called Reckoning with Risk about statistics, which should be compulsory reading for those of us who assume that scientists who make up conclusions on very, very little evidence. can be trusted. Should be required reading for those who believe the latest research on the BSA website. You will tear your hair out!
Good few pages on the idea of trusting the unconscious mind and not second guessing. If we get an expert to think about what she is doing as she is doing it it goes haywire. Remind you of anything? Well worth reading for anyone PWS or not. Not technical but properly scientifically based and an easy read.
Get it from the library or Amazon.
He also has a really good one called Reckoning with Risk about statistics, which should be compulsory reading for those of us who assume that scientists who make up conclusions on very, very little evidence. can be trusted. Should be required reading for those who believe the latest research on the BSA website. You will tear your hair out!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Control vs Managing
Control is fixed and digital and confining. We actually have very little control of ourselves or anyone else.
Management is moment to moment, more analogue and both proactive and reactive: we can, and do, manage ourselves and others to a greater or lesser extent.
More useful and accurate to think in terms of managing than control.
Management is moment to moment, more analogue and both proactive and reactive: we can, and do, manage ourselves and others to a greater or lesser extent.
More useful and accurate to think in terms of managing than control.
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