Not drowning, counting

["David McDonald (personal)" <>]

What a weird concept of 'science'! A more apposite approach would be to say that all science is the careful analysis and interpretation of data and information, or similar. Counting is simply a means to an end. And there is plenty of science (e.g. the kind of qualitative social science research that I do) that has no numbers, and no counting, involved at all.

And ...

Ockham's Razor, ABC RN, 22Jan12

Measures of leadership: Reflections on Robert S. McNamara
Professor Mark Dodgson is at the Business School, University of Queenslandhttp://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/ockham27s-razor-22-january-2012/3732754
'The great management guru Peter Drucker wrote: "What gets measured gets managed” and this has become a mantra of management consulting companies worldwide. Three unfortunate corollaries result. First, what is measured is prioritized. Second, organizational efforts move towards those that are most easily quantified.  Third, what can’t be measured is believed to be unimportant. Another all too evident consequence is that despite caveats and provisos often put on measures by their creators, they cannot control their inappropriate use.'

David

On 31/07/2012 9:49 AM, Geoffrey Dabb wrote:

You might have heard on Radio National this morning Dr Peter Doherty talking about his new book, and giving a big plug to bird-counting by amateurs as an important contribution to the science of ornithology.  In passing he mentioned the aphorism:  “All science is counting”.  This makes me slightly uneasy because it is a short step to “All counting is science”, a doubtful proposition, but entertained by some.  You need to count the right things, surely.  So many counters out there, so many things.