General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What If Richard Nixon Had Had Your E-Mail Password? [View all]hlthe2b
(102,267 posts)I can think of many many areas where this has been demonstrated to be true.
Take medical research... New epidemiologists and researchers tend to think they need to ask EVERY question possible in a study--only to find that this dramatically weakens or negates the abiity (power) to find the answer to the immediate question that they seek. This is a primary statistical principle and I'll save others the details except to say the more you ask, the more chance for meaningless (chance) correlations to emerge solely, masking any ability to make valid assumptions. In other words, the more data you collect and try to analyze the more likely for "false positive findings" to emerge.
That principle in science is crudely known as "garbage in, garbage out"....
Even with unlimited resources (which I'd bet even the most powerful nation in the world can not assure), there is simply no way to glean timely valid information on such unfocused data mining. And the lack of trust by the people in our government that has resulted--not to mention our angry allies, makes (IMHO) this the policy of fools.