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It appears you have to make judgements about when to rely on your
judgements!
* Suppose I want an accurate voltage measurement. I go to pick out a
voltmeter, and the shelf has a $800 Keithley meter, a $9 Radioshack meter,
and a 40 yr old analog meter.
I typically only become suspicious of the measurement if it leads to
a contradiction with some other "authoritative" result. I can't
afford to spend the time checking the calibrations of every piece of
equipment I use.
checked any of the calibrations, but because I simply "judged a book by its
cover". Brand name, cost and newness don't guarantee accuracy, but they do
correlate strongly with accuracy.
* Suppose I want to look for terrorists trying to blow up airplanes.
Is it "unscientific" to concentrate attention on a 20 year old Arabic
male travelling one way carrying a backpack? These are secondary
characteristics.