Title text:
The plural of anecdote may not be data, but the singular of data is anecdote.
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Source: https://xkcd.com/3262/
this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
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Reduce the sample size by increasing qualifying parameters until you find a dataset that matches your hypothesis in such a way that the research grant will be approved.
Sometimes even worse, which is to collect a raft of data testing one hypothesis, and then realize it all came up empty, and so go looking for any data you can form a new hypothesis from that matches the data you already have.
https://xkcd.com/882/ This, but done retrospectively