Pure nonsense, but based on data

Consider this short tale of woe.

Scientist:

“Driving isn’t without risks. In Australia, thousands of people die in traffic fatalities each year. Many more are injured. What makes it worse is that your reckless driving doesn’t just put you at risk – it compromises the safety of everyone else, too.”

Politician:

“Therefore, we must ban all private car ownership. For your safety, we’re closing the roads!”

Citizen:

“Uh… isn’t that plan… you know, ridiculous?”

Politician:

“Oh, look who thinks they’re smarter than the scientists.”

Policies aren’t based on science. Sometimes they’re based on data – but that’s often in the sense of “this movie is based on real life events”. Science requires controlled environments and replication, which are difficult to pull off in policy.

Anyway, I’m sure you see the analogy to current events here. Scientists say “covid is…”, politicians say “therefore we’ll…” and most folks can’t see the enormous gap in the middle there.

Lockdowns are based on scientific data.

This fictitious plan to lower road fatalities is based on scientific data, too.

But the existence of data doesn’t tell you whether either plan is effective, moral or even sane. If the data says “lockdowns slow the spread of covid”, that’s not the answer to the question of whether they’re a good idea.

That’s barely even the start of that question.

There’s no evidence that even says lockdowns are worth it – that, in the long term, the harm caused is less than the harm spared. Yet people talk as if science has proved lockdowns are the best approach.

It hasn’t. Not by a long shot.

Remember that the next time someone shrieks “science!!!” or “data!!!” on social media.

The idea of closing roads is absurd. In 2019, the idea of deliberately tanking the economy and quarantining the healthy was just as absurd, so I wouldn’t rule it out.

Anything can happen.

If you do find yourself having to walk everywhere, I hope you’re in decent shape for it.

The best way to do that is to learn to love exercise.

I’m not the fittest guy out there. I’m not going to appear on the cover of a fitness magazine – ever.

But, hey, I used to dislike working out and now I genuinely enjoy it. So while I might not be a fitness model, I am fitter than I would be otherwise.

I used the tactics outlined in Motion Mind and it worked for me. Heck, what I cover in that book is overkill compared to what I used. Chances are, you’ll only need a fraction of the tips I cover in that.

Get your hands on it here:

https://guided-thought.com/books/