DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH: Some of the most OUT OF BALANCE advice ever!!
Trust your gut and do your own research are two VERY common and easily rattled off pieces of advice. And both of them bother me VERY much. I’ve already shared what I think about trust your gut. Now it’s time to talk about what’s so problematic about do your own research.
Where do I begin? Where do I begin? Let’s start with a useful quote for this topic:
We are drowning in information but starving for wisdom. ~Tony Robbins
While the internet provides us access to all kinds of information, most of us cannot properly parse out this information. That does not mean we aren’t intelligent or that we are illiterate and incapable of comprehending whatever it is we are researching. What it does mean, however, is that thorough research requires much more time and effort than most of us give to it. It amazes me how many people think their one week of “researching” uncovers what experts have not been able to uncover in their 10,000+++ hours of experience.
What appears to be happening is that people are embracing the anti-expert or anti-guru mentality, which I have understood to mean that your singular, self-taught success is why you should be deemed credible and can thereby can market yourself for profit. Being anti-guru, from how I interpret it, means that the traditional means of developing expertise is not required in order to make a substantial living for yourself. While it is true that you can carve out a lane for yourself in certain roles (roles that do not require specific credentials) and be profitable, we cannot pretend that there are not serious limitations and hiccups along the way.
We also cannot pretend that one person’s experience can be generalized to a larger population of people. This is what we learn in statistics especially PREREQUISITE statistics courses for individuals that will read and/or perform research during their course of study. Typically those conducting and reading scientific research are pursuing master and doctoral level degrees. I will touch on what scientific research encompasses momentarily. Again I do not say this to imply that only those with advanced degrees are capable of dissecting any research. What I am implying, however, is that it is likely to be more challenging to comb through statistics without understanding the standards for deriving and interpreting statistical data. It’s not necessarily straightforward and as I always say,
Numbers don’t lie but people lie about the numbers.
Unless we pour through the raw data, which is the heavy lifting of thorough research, it is very easy to be mislead by certain conclusions, abstracts and summaries. It’s important to understand sample size, qualitative vs quantitative data, statistical vs clinical significance, designs of experiment, reliability and validity and so on. Also, disclaimers should not be overlooked.
Furthermore, we need to be rather meticulous when reading any second hand citing or publishing of data, especially publications that are not peer-reviewed. The peer review process helps maintain the integrity of the publication and provides a measure of accountability.
Integrity and accountability are prerequisites for trust. I understand where mistrust comes from because like I said, people lie about the numbers. We also find it hard to trust because we receive seemingly contradictory advice and guidelines. I say seemingly contradictory because it’s often how we and the media interpret advice in order to be succinct. I also believe things come across as contradictory because of our discomfort with ambiguity and uncertainty. We can’t be convinced without certainty. We want absolutes when absolutes are EXTREMELY rare. The sign of a true expert is that he/she doesn’t speak in absolutes. As Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson says,
True experts are more keenly aware of what they do NOT know than what they actually know.
Probably the most honest and trustworthy three words we can utter are “I don’t know.” Yet those three words frustrate us and in our frustration we run to the first person that sounds as if they know what they are talking about. Even the most educated can be duped by confidence and charisma. We usually can detect when someone knows less than us but we unknowingly venture into wild west territory when we detect someone that appears to be competent and knows more than we know.
The problem is we don’t know what they don’t know. It’s kind of like juniors in high school looking up to freshmen in college to tell them all about college life. Yes the freshmen can speak to what they have experienced thus far but have no idea how much their perspective will change by the time they graduate. The HS juniors are none the wiser. They just find the college freshman credible because they are in college and that’s where the HS juniors aspire to be one day.
You may ask, well how could I know what they don’t know? Better yet, why should I know what they don’t know? Why you should know is because you can easily be duped even if you are educated, discerning and naturally skeptical. Let’s talk about how to know what they don’t know. Some questions to ask or sleuth are included below. Please note this may seem like a lot to uncover which is proof positive that most laymen research is not very thorough. Due diligence is required to prevent being duped and scammed.
Now let’s pivot to what science is and what science is not.
People like to state that their claims are backed by science. The term science is very broad and has numerous definitions. Many people think of science as what naturally occurs in the environment. However science is more of a methodology, an approach to systemic study used to gain knowledge. That systemic approach can be applied to anything not just chemical, biological, and physiological processes. Most of us learned about the scientific method in secondary school. The method is used to provide streamlined and objective means of proving or disproving a hypothesis.
We just can’t accept a hypothesis because it sounds good. We test it, let the evidence emerge from the test, accept the results, and then continue with testing additional hypotheses to create larger bodies of evidence. Particularly evidence that has broad applicability. I keep mentioning reliability and validity. In order for something to be valid, it has to perform as claimed. In order for something to be reliable, those valid results need to be replicable, ideally at a high rate. Many solutions are valid but not reliable or accessible.
The last point I will make about science is that there are limitations to science. Not everything undergoes rigorous study. Some studies are never initiated, aka funded, for fear of what the research will uncover. Research in and of itself is fairly expensive. And many solutions may indeed be valid but have yet to undergo the necessary examination to prove it’s reliability for larger sample sizes.
Having said all of that, there are a number of valid and even reliable products available on the market that do not have the traditional scientific stamps of approval. For some, success with a sample size of one may be all the certainty a person needs to try it for themselves. And to me, all of that is fine and good as long as that is what is honestly conveyed beforehand. The problem is charlatans don’t believe that simply telling the truth will be profitable for them. Instead they use tried and true marketing techniques to lower our defenses compelling us to buy into whatever they are selling based on impulse and emotion, leaving us to believe that we have done our due diligence, when in fact we may not have even scratched the surface.
In closing, with AI and misinformation on the rise. We are afraid of constantly being duped and scammed. I think that is because we know that we have not developed our research muscles adequately which leaves us wide open and vulnerable to scammers. What’s odd to me is we decide to push a reactionary approach of tighter regulation and law enforcement. Instead of the proactive approach of developing our research muscles to prevent being scammed in the first place. Because you know scammers would be less inclined to pursue their deviance if they knew we weren’t afraid of them and wouldn’t fall for their lies.
Onward to due diligence and Harmonious Balance my friends,
Johanna
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