Actually musicians and astrologists are very similar. Both make money with providing entertaining performances for their clients. Members of those professions who ignore evidence about what entertains their clients go out of business.
OK, if you consider the point of astrology to be “making money”, as opposed to “predicting people’s personalities and future events”, then it is evidence-based—but then again, if you consider the point of alternative medicine to be “making money”, as opposed to “improving people’s health”, then it is evidence-based as well. (But now that Qiaochu_Yuan has made clear that it’s not alternative medicine that he was talking about, this is kind of moot, so I’ll tap out now.)
OK, if you consider the point of astrology to be “making money”, as opposed to “predicting people’s personalities and future events”
I didn’t. I advocated another goal, entertainment. I don’t know that much about astrology but I think a fair percentage of the people who do pay a astrologists do it for entertainement purposes.
Letting someone stick needles inside you, when you go to a acupuncturist is less about getting entertainement.
The kind of people who like astrology often also like other personality tests that they find in magazines. People enjoy going through those tests.
If an astrologer would tell people something about their personality that’s accurate but that those people aren’t willing to accept, I doubt he would stay long in business.
A bit like the musician who only plays music that he himself considers to be good, but that’s “too advanced” for his audience. If the musician only sees his own opinion of his work he’s not different than an astrologer who only sees whether his horoscope is good. If you call that musician “evidence-based” than the astrologer who goes after his own judgement of his work is also “evidence-based”.
But now that Qiaochu_Yuan has made clear that it’s not alternative medicine that he was talking about, this is kind of moot, so I’ll tap out now.
Why does that matter to the question whether barbers can be meaningfully to be said to practice evidence-based barbering?
Why does that matter to the question whether barbers can be meaningfully to be said to practice evidence-based barbering?
I was claiming that barbering is more evidence-based than alternative medicine, but if alternative medicine is not what’s being discussed, then even if I turned out to be right it still wouldn’t be relevant.
OK, if you consider the point of astrology to be “making money”, as opposed to “predicting people’s personalities and future events”, then it is evidence-based—but then again, if you consider the point of alternative medicine to be “making money”, as opposed to “improving people’s health”, then it is evidence-based as well. (But now that Qiaochu_Yuan has made clear that it’s not alternative medicine that he was talking about, this is kind of moot, so I’ll tap out now.)
I didn’t. I advocated another goal, entertainment. I don’t know that much about astrology but I think a fair percentage of the people who do pay a astrologists do it for entertainement purposes.
Letting someone stick needles inside you, when you go to a acupuncturist is less about getting entertainement.
The kind of people who like astrology often also like other personality tests that they find in magazines. People enjoy going through those tests.
If an astrologer would tell people something about their personality that’s accurate but that those people aren’t willing to accept, I doubt he would stay long in business.
A bit like the musician who only plays music that he himself considers to be good, but that’s “too advanced” for his audience. If the musician only sees his own opinion of his work he’s not different than an astrologer who only sees whether his horoscope is good. If you call that musician “evidence-based” than the astrologer who goes after his own judgement of his work is also “evidence-based”.
Why does that matter to the question whether barbers can be meaningfully to be said to practice evidence-based barbering?
I was claiming that barbering is more evidence-based than alternative medicine, but if alternative medicine is not what’s being discussed, then even if I turned out to be right it still wouldn’t be relevant.