logoalt Hacker News

tyraboundtoday at 2:16 AM1 replyview on HN

It is still seared into my mind when a PhD openly stated in a meeting once that she likes to draw the graphs she needs for her papers and then goes looking for the data she needs to support it. I’m sure I can imaging what kind of looking she did based on the fact that she was little more than a slick, fast talking, skin revealing, fast moving, usual suspect con man.


Replies

officeherotoday at 5:35 AM

> draw the graphs she needs for her papers and then goes looking for the data she needs to support it

This is a vague statement and it's super important to be precise when blaming someone. I think what you meant is - sketch out the graphs with patterns that support the alternative hypothesis/interesting result and then look for data that make the 'real' patterns look like those in the sketch?