Monday, August 17, 2015

Week of Peevishness

#1: People who say they're going to go 'research' something, by which they mean use Google or possibly read abstracts BUT without any of the background necessary to distinguish between JAMA and the Journal of East Indian Natural Herbal Biological Remedies. On average, people with no scientific training know nothing about science and research,* so they will read an assortment of blog posts and conclude that all Category C medications MUST NOT be taken in pregnancy!  Well, I feel they're as qualified to do a literature review as *I* am to referee a paper on epistemology.


(Note to the reader: I have to look up what epistemology means every time. In my head it's something to do with letters.  Yes, I know, that's epistolary. Same with hermeneutics: I know it has a meaning but my brain doesn't store it.)

What's your pet peeve this week?

* Some do, of course!  But not everyone with a college degree knows the difference between data from Motherisk and data from, say, Andrew Wakefield. 

10 comments:

  1. My darling children, who cannot handle staying up late to watch meteor showers. C1 had a tantrum yesterday because I forced him to put on his swimsuit, and go to the splash park! It was a 7-yr-old's tantrum, consisting of whining and arguing, but still. I'm never letting him stay up late again. Ever.

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    1. Jenny F Scientist9:03 AM

      Never EVER.

      Delete
  2. <---- sitting over here laughing at your remarks about epistemology, esp. sa as I was recently described as "a hard-core logician and philosopher who thinks dynamic epistemology is the only species of epistemology that matters" in an interview. (I was a bit taken aback when I read that description, until I remembered that I actually did say that in one of my answers...)

    [edit: bugger, your LJ cross-comment is not working. will have to post from blogger acount. aryanhwy.livejournal.com.]

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    1. Jenny F Scientist12:51 PM

      I also had to look up what dynamic epistemology is. One of many subjects about which, I freely admit, I know nothing! Sounds interesting though. :-)

      Delete
  3. My pet peeve is giving a technical document to a colleague to review the *content* and having him spend a week re-formatting the paragraph and figure and caption styles to suit his aesthetic. When I'm the one who writes all the technical documents on this subject. So now we're going to have one that looks totally different, unless I spend another week putting it all straight again. and my section of the project has now been hit with a week of extra hours and can ill-afford another week. Unfortunately this "colleague" is also my boss. And the MD. Bugger.

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    1. Jenny F Scientist8:41 AM

      Aaaaargh. Content is not appearance. Clearly your boss is a little, ah distractible!

      Delete
  4. People who think the plural of anecdote is evidence. I'm so glad it worked for you and that blogger you adore; please leave me ALONE now. Oh and PS: if lead a generally unhealthy lifestyle, I'm not going to believe the gluten/grains/vaccines/public schools/phase of the moon is the one true root of your troubles, so please leave me ALONE now.

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    1. Jenny F Scientist8:44 AM

      All the kinds of yes.

      Delete
  5. I think my pet peeve is the word hermeneutics. Seriously, if I can't remember what it means, it doesn't need to exist. Epistemology can continue to exist--I have to introduce some basics in one of my courses. I include some pronunciation practice, so enjoy imagining 150 undergrads chanting "EPISTEMOLOGY" over and over again.

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    1. Jenny F Scientist9:52 AM

      I have a many-years-running joke with my grad school friend Belle, who has a PhD in French, about judging the quality of a humanities article based on how many times it uses the word hermeneutics. It's an inverse correlation.

      Delete

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