In the article, Studies Are Usually Bunk, Study Shows, author Andy Kessler suggests that we stay skeptical and be aware of the studies we look at. I agree with this; it’s important to not always be convinced by one study. However, I thought Kessler’s analysis of debunked research wasn’t as informative as it should’ve been, and I disagreed with many of his thoughts.

Kessler mentions Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Outliers,” and brings up Gladwell’s argument of “studies show no one is born better than anyone else.” I agree with Gladwell’s point, but Kessler argues it by suggesting that Steph Curry might be naturally better than someone else at basketball in the first place. I understand Kessler’s point, but I think that it was practice that made Curry so great, not him being natural at it. Also, Kessler goes against Gladwell’s argument that no one is born better than anyone else by only suggesting the Steph Curry example.

Kessler then mentions another one of Gladwell’s books, “Blink.” In this book, Gladwell shares studies that suggest “we are all unconsciously biased sexists, racists, genderists, ableists…” Kessler quickly refutes this claim, especially when Hillary Clinton said that we all have an implicit bias problem, and then acts as if he is offended by this generalization. That’s it; all he said is that people should speak for themselves, and that this generalization is too far basically. I personally think that a lot of us have a bias problem, whether we want to believe it or not, and especially in this day and age. For example, I think that we all have a media bias. A lot of Republicans watch Fox News, while Democrats stick to CNN. 

Overall, I agree that we need to stay skeptical and open minded when trusting research and studies. I will keep these points in mind when doing my research on my paradigm shift essay. Because a majority of my essay contains facts, studies, and information, it’s important I choose the right websites to use, and I will try to avoid using bias information. However, I didn’t like the fact that Kessler was so vague and offered no solutions. All he did was refute a lot of arguments that studies show and offered no solutions to how we should work around studies that are bias. I think if you are going to go against something, you need to have a strong alternative, and Kessler did not.

Andy Kessler

Malcom Gladwell