Alien Corn: My anecdote is weightier than your anecdote!

My anecdote is weightier than your anecdote! Data – their collection, categorization, analysis, grouping, splitting, slicing and dicing – used to be a big part of my life, and I still retain a strong interest in issues surrounding them*. As such, I got my morning chuckle (which, by the way, is a dry, hollow, humorless thing, like a chill autumn wind rustling fallen leaves) out of this little exchange:

Pinette | July 13, 2007, 5:22pm | #
this is going to sound very offensive to some people. Also, i have no evidence to back it up.
I think, maybe, that obese people tend to be less intelligent than thin people, on average, which would explain them making less money. They certainly seem to not be smart enough to stop eating.

stoneymonster | July 13, 2007, 5:32pm | #
obese people tend to be less intelligent than thin people

This would seem to go against the stereotype of the overweight computer geek.

Pinette | July 13, 2007, 5:38pm | #
Stoneymonster,
I don't buy that stereotype.
The computer geeks I know are all thin.
Plus, what about the stereotype of the skinny nerd in glasses?

stoneymonster | July 13, 2007, 5:41pm | #
My anecdotes are better than your anecdotes. I went to engineering school with many brilliant people, overweight and thin.

Pinette | July 13, 2007, 5:46pm | #
I went to community college with many stupid people, mostly overweight.

*Yes, I am one of those insufferable pedants who insist on reminding people that 'data' is a plural noun.

Posted by David Fleck at 14 July 2007 05:07 PM

Comments

I liked this part:

The guy who wakes up at 7 AM, goes to the job interview, and then shows up five days a week and gets a promotion is more likeley going to choose the salad over the donut then the guy who gets drunk every night and sleeps till the afternoon. How could it possibly be otherwise?

Because, you know, those are the only two possible scenarios: salad-nibbling workaholic or doughnut-gobbling drunkard.

Me, I eat to forget that there are stupid people in the world. I meant to take up drinking instead, but I couldn't afford it.

Posted by: Angie Schultz on July 14, 2007 08:17 PM

I often wonder if there's something special about the denizens of the internet such that all of life and the universe only exists for them in stark, diametrically opposed opposites – it's not just black-and-white, it's 24-bit black-and-white. With hardware acceleration!!

But then I read the letters to the editor – presumably a better gauge of the general population – and realize that they're even more nuance-free.

Posted by: David Fleck on July 19, 2007 08:11 AM

"Stuff [John Derbyshire] NRO, 1 Jun 2006
[Sigh] [Deep sigh] There are still some NRO readers who think that "data" is a plural English word, in spite of my having disposed dispositively
of the whole silly issue in Prime Obsession, pp.85-86.Once more: "data" is indeed a plural noun in Latin. However, if it's Latin you're writing, you should put the word in italics, which I didn't. In English (i.e. out of italics), "data" is an aggregative noun, identifying
a kind of STUFF, like "rice" or "grass." These nouns take the singular form of the verb: "The rice is cooked." And I don't care what your stupid dictionary says. I spent most of my
life working with data. I know what it is."

No one thinks you are an "insufferable pedant". More like someone who is desperately trying to send a signal.

Posted by: aem5 on July 27, 2007 12:47 AM

No one thinks you are an "insufferable pedant".

Nonsense! I still think you're an insufferable pedant, David.

Posted by: Angie Schultz on July 28, 2007 10:39 AM

Thanks, Angie. It's faith like that that gives me the strength to carry on.

Posted by: David Fleck on July 28, 2007 08:46 PM

OK then, I was wrong.

Posted by: aem5 on July 29, 2007 12:41 AM