Buddy story · Reading group
We read one paper a month and argue about it
Not a support pairing in the usual sense. Ruthie and Ashwin read one paper a month, badly, together, and are both better at it than they were.
- Paired
- December 2024
- Cadence
- Monthly
- Status
- ongoing
Sunil runs the reading group and is careful to say that neither of these two has any formal training, which is the point. They started because both had been beaten in an argument by somebody quoting a study that, when they finally read it, did not say what had been claimed.
The method they arrived at is unglamorous. Who was in it. How many. For how long. What was actually measured. What the number was, as opposed to what the headline was. Then, and only then, what it might mean for anybody.
They disagree regularly and neither minds. Ashwin is more sceptical than Ruthie about almost everything, and Ruthie has twice talked him out of dismissing a real finding because he did not like the funding source. There is a guide about the method at reading a trial without a PhD.
We are not qualified and we say so at the start of every conversation. What we are is willing to read past the abstract, which puts us ahead of the internet.
The claim on top of the study is nearly always bigger than the study. Nearly always. It is boring how reliable that is.