Comment · Thu, November 13, 2014 · Ceretropic
How does /r/nootrpics feel about anecdotal reports?
Original post in this thread
smellybaconreader · 9 points
Inspired by this thread over in /r/psychology, I'm curious how this community views anecdotal evidence. Sift through any thread in this subreddit and you'll find dozens of anecdotal nootropic reports. To me, that's frustrating.
I can't help but to agree with the posters over in that thread who are decidely against anecdotal evidence. Anecdotal evidence is the lowest form of scientific evidence; it's notoriously unreliable, and borderline useless. Pretty much the only value I see is to generate hypotheses which can be scientifically tested.
What do you guys think?
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence
Also, please excuse my painful typo in the title.
What they were answering
ksmiz · 3 points
The only way it changed before is when you swept through all the modafinil posts and took a stance on it. I know the sub won't turn into something I'm more apt to take part in without more involvement from even myself. Just still not sure how much a time investment improving on already healthy(assuming) individuals is when studying detriments to health is more available and acceptable. I do not see either hitting a wall any time soon, we will always be learning about the body whether positive or negative. The appeal of advancing into the unknown has drawn me here but the appeal of helping others in need draws me back to already established medicine. However, there are plenty of unknowns in established medicine and health.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
There are a lot of things I want to do with scientific studies in the future, and even things to help make anecdotes more objective. I just only have so much time in my day. Now that Ceretropic is doing so much, and Jason is gone, I am pretty strapped for time. But I am going to fund some scientific studies with some local universities at some point, and we are for sure going to get some more organized online tracking of people's anecdotes. That will at least help push us more towards a science based structure. I just need a couple more of me at the moment.