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My 16-month theanine self-experiment

(dynomight.net)
817 points dynm | 1 comments | 09 Mar 25 03:08 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source
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discodonkey ◴[09 Mar 25 06:49 UTC] No.43306858[source]▶
For a community that prides itself on critical thinking, I'm always surprised to see HN lap this sort of pseudoscientific witch-doctor stuff up.

This poorly-controlled, N=1 experiment tells you nothing, not even about the author.

There's absolutely no reason to consider these novice self-experiments when professional scientific experiments are available (unless you're hunting for a specific result).

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1. ellen364 ◴[09 Mar 25 08:11 UTC] No.43307178[source]▶
People invented and discovered remarkable things before modern statistics and RCTs (work on puerperal fever, antisepsis and germ theory stand out for me). Humans can make surprising progress with only small scale experimentation and observation.

I prefer the results of large studies. I think modern methods are better than methods from the Scientific Revolution. But people can't always afford to wait a decade or two for solidly replicated results.