Confessions of a researchaholic

November 20, 2020

How to deal with randomness in life

Filed under: Real — liyiwei @ 3:31 pm
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[This is my reply to a co-author who expressed concerns about the randomness in peer reviews.]

During my military training, a saying went like 散彈打鳥不死也傷, which roughly translates to “if one shoots enough bullets into a forest eventually a bird will be hit”.

(There are others related quotes such as “the best way to have a great idea is to have a lot of ideas” by Linus Pauling, but shooting bullets feels more concrete/visceral.)

Other things being equal, more attempts tend to reduce statistical variance and increase the numbers of success.

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