I’ve detected myself using a new rule of thumb: if you don’t link to primary sources, I just don’t trust you.
BEN GOLDACREJust just because there are flaws in aircraft design that doesn’t mean flying carpets exist.
More Ben Goldacre Quotes
-
-
The placebo effect is one of the most fascinating things in the whole of medicine. It’s not just about taking a pill, and your performance and your pain getting better. It’s about our beliefs and expectations. It’s about the cultural meaning of a treatment.
BEN GOLDACRE -
Science has authority not because of white coats or titles, but because of precision and transparency: you explain your theory, set out your evidence, and reference the studies that support your case.
BEN GOLDACRE -
Real science is all about critically appraising the evidence for somebody else’s position.
BEN GOLDACRE -
You are a placebo responder. Your body plays tricks on your mind. You cannot be trusted.
BEN GOLDACRE -
If I was writing a lifestyle book it would have the same advice on every page, and you’d know it all already.
BEN GOLDACRE -
I think you’ll find it’s a bit more complicated than that.
BEN GOLDACRE -
Just just because there are flaws in aircraft design that doesn’t mean flying carpets exist.
BEN GOLDACRE -
But as we will see, even these things are hard to do on your own, and in reality require wholesale social and political changes.
BEN GOLDACRE -
I write about misuses of evidence in plenty of different spheres: scaremongering journalists, obvious quacks and naturopaths, and flaws in the way that evidence is used in mainstream academia, medicine and in (government) policy.
BEN GOLDACRE -
As it is a major component of blood, water is vital for transporting oxygen to the brain. Heaven forbid that your blood should dry out.
BEN GOLDACRE -
You cannot reason people out of a position that they did not reason themselves into.
BEN GOLDACRE -
Transparency and detail are everything in science.
BEN GOLDACRE -
And if, by the end [of this book], you reckon you might still disagree with me, then I offer you this: you’ll still be wrong, but you’ll be wrong with a lot more panache and flair than you could possibly manage right now.
BEN GOLDACRE -
Children can be disgusting, and often they can develop extraordinary talents, but I’m yet to meet any child who can stimulate his carotid arteries inside his ribcage.
BEN GOLDACRE -
I think you’ll find it’s a bit more complicated than that.
BEN GOLDACRE