Everybody Should Listen To Bruce Willis

      The last sentence of "The Great Crow Fallacy" pretty much sums it up, "always keep asking, 'what's the evidence?'" Personally, this chapter doesn't apply to much to me. The basis of the lesson is to always look at where particular evidence and statistics are coming from. They even provide a nice little checklist to consider:

• "Who stands behind the information?
  
• Does the source have an ax to grind?
  
• What method did the source use to obtain the information?
  
• How old are the data?
  
• What assumptions did those collecting the information make?
  
• How much guesswork was involved?"
  

The authors warn about following the advice of people who don't necessarily know what they're talking about. For example, Bruce Willis made his support of the Iraq War very clear, and Linus Paulding endorsed the use of Vitamin C, but neither (arguably) had any expertise in the field. I acknowledge the author's claim to a logical extent, but I disagree in that Bruce Willis is within my top five list of Coolest People Ever and anything the man says immediately, without question, becomes cool. 

It is good advice, however. I think it's particularly dangerous not to constantly question where the data from most statistics you hear is coming from. This is something I've constantly done my whole life. For example, when somebody tells me "Did you hear you eat 8 spiders in your lifetime?" I reply, "O RLY? Where did you hear that? A Snapple Cap?" And the number always changes, its either 8 spiders... or 6... or 12... or 3 every year... All I want is some truth.