Strogatz: Social sciences are harder than physics because subjects react to measurement
Steven Strogatz · #73 Steven Strogatz: Exploring Curiosities · Jan 7, 2020 · at 56:04
Applied mathematician Steven Strogatz explains to Shane Parrish why mathematical modeling achieves higher predictive precision in physics than in economics and the social sciences.
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“The laws governing inanimate bodies are just a lot simpler and more easily quantified than the laws governing populations or individual people. So, the task of the social sciences is extremely hard. They get to feed back on the system that's measuring them. It's also their ethical issues. You can't, Do experiments as easily, or sometimes you can't do them at all on people or on populations of people.”
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