Why is personal experience untrustworthy for general decision-making?
Consider the fact that all personal experience is contextually-based, and that our individual contexts vary so that we would have little reliability in getting the same results again. When you have data from the experiences of many people, you will have had many different contexts from which to draw that data, so that the data will be more reliable. If you have a random, or better still, a random stratified sample, then the contexts from which you draw your data are even more alike and will give you greater faith in the reliability of your data. • You just got a job in a fast-food store after school. The assistant manager rushes over and gets the ice cream for you everytime one your customers order it. You have asked him to show you how to operate the ice cream machine, but he is always too busy to show you. Is that information control? You bet it is. The more things he can keep you from knowing the less likely you are to be promoted over him. Now that’s a pretty drastic conclusions fo
