Tuesday links, academic deep dives

Richard Shiffrin et al: Illusions of Understanding in the Sciences. A marvelous overview of various pitfalls in thinking which I will have to read again and with great care to fully understand. As is often the case, the concluding paragraph gives one a good idea of the flavor of the whole text: At the least, the difficulties of understanding should make all scientists both skeptical and humble, knowing that ‘truth’ is an ever receding goal. We must realize the full range of possible illusions and appreciate that they occur in all approaches. We can reduce false insights and achieve better understanding by embracing diverse theoretical perspectives, research methods, and modes of analysis. This requires constant intellectual humility towards our own theories, models and methods. This recommendation unfortunately competes with forces in scientific societies that foster overstated claims and conclusions: Faced with millions of publications each year, scientists must fight for attention,…