Why though?
Comment on The Three Kinds of Scientific Research
lowleveldata@programming.dev 4 weeks ago
You can’t have 1st and 2nd without the 3rd kind
flora_explora@beehaw.org 4 weeks ago
lowleveldata@programming.dev 4 weeks ago
How do you make theories without observation?
flora_explora@beehaw.org 4 weeks ago
#3 is not about making observations but about making a map of every tree. This is a common mistake of people, wanting to have a complete set of data on anything. I myself had to remind myself as well when designing projects. But in reality you cannot make a map of every tree and even if you could, what’s it worth? You need abstractions to understand anything and models are just that.
lowleveldata@programming.dev 4 weeks ago
I feel like it’s just useful for different use cases. You don’t need to start with making a map of all trees everytime but it certainly would be handy if someone else had compiled a map of all / most trees for reference.
azi@mander.xyz 4 weeks ago
I think the comic is about types of published articles with the 3rd being “we collated and collected a bunch of data to make this database that other researchers will find useful”-type papers. So you don’t need to rely on the map of every tree if you just map some trees yourself.