Comment by TeMPOraL
13 hours ago
> Naive intuition doesn't count. That's not how robust knowledge works.
Sure it does. Data is actually plural of anecdotes. That's how most actual research started. The difference between "science" and "armchair science" of this kind is a matter of degree.
Anecdotes is already a plural, of anecdote. Data is not a plural of anecdotes, or anecdote, it is plural of datum (kinda, data is often used as a mass/uncountable noun, in which case it's not a plural).
Under which hypothesis (formulated before the observations), how you collect it and its statistical significance and then how you interpret it (guided by the hypothesis) are key.
Such data is nothing like anecdotes. Anecdotes are at best inspirations to formulate hypotheses.
Intuition is a core element in research (it guides the formulation of hypotheses) but doesn't constitute evidence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method