Anecdotal Evidence

[The Grand Nudger]

Why? If someone who's like you says it's a nice, safe and affordable place to live, that carries a lot of weight with many people. Why shouldn't it?

If you need me to explain why you should check the facts of each of those things rather than taking a persons word for it when researching a home.....you have no business making such decisions.

Most people probably don't.

Most fools.

Sure. Now you're going into a false dichotomy. Surely you didn't think that I meant it's reasonable to buy a house sight unseen because you heard from a friend that the area is nice.    The friend's recommendation is an important consideration though.

You;re the only one presenting dichotomies, false or otherwise, when you reference anecdote vs x.  I'm simply injecting some common sense into your anecdote nonsense.  

That's useful, but it doesn't tell you what it's like to actually work in the field.

Sure wont, and?  How might you best check that...listen to people tell stories........?  Ever notice that two people with the same job..one hates it, one loves it..and dependng on who you're listening to it can sound awesome or shitty?  Yet another fail for anecdotal evidence.

You need to go through interviews and get the job to work in an industry regardless of your methods for selecting the industry in the first place. You're just throwing crap at the wall with these points.

-crap that you omitted out of convenience, because you felt compelled to argue for foolishness.

Obviously you'd assign less weight to testimony from someone with a personal and perhaps adverse interest in the decision. This is more black-and-white thinking. Anecdotal evidence varies in quality. If a realtor says it's a low-crime neighborhood and a friend who lives there says they've been robbed twice in the last 3 months, you'll give greater weight to the friend. This is pretty obvious stuff that we do all the time.

Maybe you should just check the stats, incidence of robbery is public record.....and tell your friend to stop dealing out of his house?

Is this it, are these the examples of how some of our most important life decisions are based on anecdotal evidence? I don't see it. Each example is an example of why -not- to base your decisions on anecdotal evidence. I'm gonna go ahead and keep basing my important life decisions on something other than the stories people tell, as much as I love my friends....important life decisions, are....important. What;s amusing about your response..is that even in addressing the weight opf anecdote..you offered non-anecdotal metrics. A friend -like you-. Obviously it's your observed similarity, and not the anecdote itself...that makes any given anecdote a friend tells you compelling. I;m guessing you're also leaning on the notion that your friend isn't embellishing or lying, too..something you will have had ample opportunity to observe and test over time. It's almost as if the weight of anecdotal evidence is in direct proportion to how much supporting non-anecdotal evidence exists.....and that you're not the kind of fool that makes important life decisions based upon anecdotes....