Friday, October 09, 2015

Quant vs. qual and baseball

Watching the baseball playoffs, the issue of advanced metrics came up with regard to deciding the American League MVP, which unleashed a torrent of tweets. I thought for the umpteenth time how similar the "old school" vs. "advanced statistics" debate in baseball is so similar to the quantitative vs. qualitative debate in political science. Both sides dig in and puff up, too often asserting that the other side is just flat wrong. The tone gets really snotty, with both sides mocking the other. People routinely get genuinely angry, especially when they sense that their entire way of thinking is being challenged.

And in both baseball and political science, it's all so tiresome and unnecessary. There is (or at least should be) plenty of room for everyone to live together if every single one of us just decided to be even just slightly more tolerant.

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