I once a had a major Silicon Valley figure/leader look me in the face and tell me, “I only pay attention to quantitative research.”

At first, I took that as just more of bias toward the numerical/“mathematical” or measurable/reproducible. But now I think it says a lot more about his own lack of competency in the social arena than he realized.

I was taking to @dyoder the other day about this, and he said, “imagine if your study had been done in that way. ‘27% of respondents reported job dissatisfaction in their commercial content moderation roles.’”

vs. “I just can’t leave it at the office. I dwell on it.”

And by ignoring and judging as invalid an entire universe of research that endeavors to more accurately and deeply capture and analyze the human experience, that exec has rather handily let himself off the hook for responsibility for the findings.

Should these be there people running our world? Are they really the best we have to offer? Come on.