Do your "OWN" reserach - funny result

[Dennis P Brown]

Here is a great overview of the "Do your own Research" mean that is far too often said on various internet sites. I said funny in the title but really, it is tragic considering the shear harm ours' and other countries are experiencing thanks to this utter stupidity by some people (many making money off this stupidity, by the way.)

Yes, some very wealthy people that claim to be smart can be very stupid in other fields. Having large amounts of money does not necessarily equal intelligence. Also, being knowledgeable in one flied does not make one an expert in other fields. Ditto, being correct about a narrow issue in a field one has little knowledge of does not mean then that one is an expert in said field nor going to be correct in that or other fields in the future.

By the way, agenda's can, at times, corrupt scientist/engineer's/managers and even entire government agencies to follow incorrect ideas so they or groups of people discount research that is counter to their goals/funded projects. Here, doing real scientific based research (i.e. peer reviewed) AND if one has the 'deep knowledge' (i.e. sufficient math/science/engineering training), then one can give informed discussions in that given field. Yes, I mean proof as in the scientific concept - not pointing at one paper and saying this disproves everything (that is a very, very high standard to meet); otherwise, it is speculation further fueling unfounded beliefs.

For a 'fun' and deeper discussion on this, see:
https://youtu.be/zISm8tFrerI

[Richard Hull]

Sadly the video is removed from you tube.


I agree.

It is difficult to believe that Gates contracted Helion to have a fusion power plant of a specific power output to power his future massive computer complex by 2028. Stupid money thrown at an impossible goal.


Richard Hull

[Dennis P Brown]

Glad Liam found the link. I was blaming Youtude falsely - guess I did my "own research" - LOL.

[Rex Allers]

Hmm
The missing youtube video pops up a message that says

"This video has been removed by the uploader"

So maybe second thoughts by poster for some reason.

In this case perhaps not a youtube censorship or violation, etc.

[Liam David]

New link here, re-uploaded to make some corrections:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t54I6NKtr4k

[Frank Sanns]

In addition to the Dunning Kruger effect which I have referenced on more than one occasion, there are other issues with "research"

1. Yes, the Dunning Kruger but also
2. Confirmation bias. You will seek out a sea of information until you find one source that agrees with your own conclusion. Now you have been validated.
3. As in the video, the search engines pick up on your biases. Not just for the subject matter that you are desiring but based on your other browsing trends. It even goes further into where you pause on any given page. This gives the search engines insight into what interests you. Future searches market information to you.

4. How accurate is information to the average person. Take Wikipedia for example. It is either garbage in the case of neutron production where it is just wrong ( I tried to correct it but my corrections were fact checked and the original WRONG post was restored.)

5. How accessible is the information. Back to Wikipedia, IT IS TOO COMPLEX for all but somebody that is an established expert in the field and even then it can be difficult to impossible to follow. Take something as simple as the Uncertainty Principle on Wikipedia. Some of it is just wrong and the rest of it gets so tangentially in depth that it can either not be followed or related or understood.

6. Even highly respected researchers are wrong. All of us are wrong at times. Once I was asked to serve on a technical group open to the pubic to discuss energy technologies. The hydrogen fuel team were talking about ways to produce hydrogen via hydrolysis. Their yields were around 12% over unity. NONE of them had done the calculation to know that but their tables of numbers supported it. There was no error in their data. It was verified that they were producing 12% more energy out than was put in. As a chemist, I know this cannot be. The answer was in the effluence that they were trying to clean up. It was urea nitrogen containing solutions. In these solutions, it is easier to electrolyze hydrogen from a nitrogen atom than from an oxygen atom of water.

There are minefields everywhere in our lives and we all sometimes get caught up in them no matter how diligent we are especially when trying to learn. Look at the evolution of this site and how some of the highly skilled people on here have had false assumptions about something along the way.

These days, I do not tell half of the people I meet that I am a chemist/scientist. I say I am a bum and I live off of rich women. It takes all of the burden off of me when they dictate sequential erroneous information me.