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RE: STEM and Representation follow-up
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From: Sally Miller <derbymiller_at_fuse.net>
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2013 22:16:48 -0400
Dear Christine, Thank you for a much-needed and illuminating response about research on book-buying. I find it really interesting that in so many other areas of society--like education and politics--as well as in publishing we do everything we can to avoid the chance of making a mistake, particularly one that will have observable results. Or one that will cost us or the people we work for a loss of money or prestige. If we can't know for certain what to do, we will do our best to get others to decide for us, or at least to give us information we can use to justify our actions. That's understandable and often sensible. But when we run into trouble is when we merely accept without analyzing. We become overconfident in the validity of polls and surveys and the opinions of those who are deemed experts. I humbly admit I'm not much of a math person, so I hope I can be forgiven for thinking that whenever people are the focus of a study, our quirks, our inconsistencies, our unexpected fears and vanities and strength s and virtues make the probable margin of error greater than we want to admit to ourselves or anyone else.
Most of us can't even predict for sure how we will react to a given situation or give reliable accountings of our own habits, so why should studies based on predictions of others' actions be unquestionably accepted?
I'm probably not making much sense, because I'm outside my field. I just think that we move towards error whenever we begin to classify people. I know, we have to classify--that's the only way to approach some things. But we shouldn't do it unquestioningly. I am a person before I am female, Caucasian, Protestant, old, handicapped, etc. So, in all those respects, is my next-door neighbor, and I assure you I am not at all like her, although she's an extremely nice person.
So I hope editors will keep on choosing and promoting whatever manuscripts they believe in and love, as much as they can, no matter what the predictions about how many of which groups will or will not buy them. And now I will go back to the comfort of private writing, hoping that this post isn't a terribly public mistake.
_____
Received on Sun 31 Mar 2013 10:16:48 PM CDT
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2013 22:16:48 -0400
Dear Christine, Thank you for a much-needed and illuminating response about research on book-buying. I find it really interesting that in so many other areas of society--like education and politics--as well as in publishing we do everything we can to avoid the chance of making a mistake, particularly one that will have observable results. Or one that will cost us or the people we work for a loss of money or prestige. If we can't know for certain what to do, we will do our best to get others to decide for us, or at least to give us information we can use to justify our actions. That's understandable and often sensible. But when we run into trouble is when we merely accept without analyzing. We become overconfident in the validity of polls and surveys and the opinions of those who are deemed experts. I humbly admit I'm not much of a math person, so I hope I can be forgiven for thinking that whenever people are the focus of a study, our quirks, our inconsistencies, our unexpected fears and vanities and strength s and virtues make the probable margin of error greater than we want to admit to ourselves or anyone else.
Most of us can't even predict for sure how we will react to a given situation or give reliable accountings of our own habits, so why should studies based on predictions of others' actions be unquestionably accepted?
I'm probably not making much sense, because I'm outside my field. I just think that we move towards error whenever we begin to classify people. I know, we have to classify--that's the only way to approach some things. But we shouldn't do it unquestioningly. I am a person before I am female, Caucasian, Protestant, old, handicapped, etc. So, in all those respects, is my next-door neighbor, and I assure you I am not at all like her, although she's an extremely nice person.
So I hope editors will keep on choosing and promoting whatever manuscripts they believe in and love, as much as they can, no matter what the predictions about how many of which groups will or will not buy them. And now I will go back to the comfort of private writing, hoping that this post isn't a terribly public mistake.
_____
Received on Sun 31 Mar 2013 10:16:48 PM CDT
