Quote:
Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto
If a guy "writes a book" about his new ideas, then he's a grand-stander trying to make a buck. If he were a scientist, he would present his ideas to the scientific community in the form of research data to be replicated by others and discussed in the literature. A scientist exposes his ideas to the criticism of other workers in the field and tries to depend his thesis in an appropriate venue. Your BS-o-Meter should start ringing violently anytime someone writes a book.
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These days especially as "writing a book" increasingly means putting something on a web page or making a YouTube video. At least with a book there was some barrier to entry. You had to get it published, and publishing costs money. That didn't make it anymore factual but it did cut down on the wing-dings a bit. You had to at least be a somewhat popular wing-ding which opened you up to some criticism.
Honestly, I don't know how much it really matters though. I got turned off when I started noticing how liberal Dr. Fung, for example, is with scientific studies. He'll cite them, sure, but then it's not very useful to cite studies if you then go and misrepresent what they say which is what he does rather blatantly. I mean, it's still helpful. I can go to the study and confirm whether he's just making stuff up or has a basis. Anyone can do that. Most people choose not to care though. They like the message and don't really care if it's factual or fluffery.
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