Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The pandemic has its own phrase for the use of bad or junk science and poor thought and communication.

It’s in the “news” almost everyday now. I feel it came about from the pandemic, but there are other excuses we can use. It is that phrase in the title,

We know more now.

Well, of course we know more now. We are a day older and we probably learned something yesterday that we didn’t know the day before yesterday.

We told the world definitively a few months ago that, “This is the way it is. This is what we are doing.”

Recently, “We know more now, so forget what we told you a few months ago and abide by what we are telling you today.”

A few examples that illustrate the folly:

• The Kansas City Chiefs are the best team in football. We know more now, so…
• I told a hundred persons that I would be faithful to my wife till death do us part. I know more now so…
• I told the judge I would tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I know more now, so…
• We convicted so-and-so of murder before we had any DNA science. We know more now, so…

The reason we go with “we know more now, so…” is that we didn’t think it through a few months ago. We didn’t choose our words. We didn’t communicate what we knew and what we didn’t know and what new evidence might change our recommendations.

In other words, we were lazy and a bit dishonest on top of laziness.

Professional professors used to say things like, “Given the evidence to date, here are our conclusions and recommendations. Our knowledge is limited in the following areas. If we learn such-and-such, that will change our recommendations. We will search in those areas and advise others to do the same and listen for changes in evidence. We have x% confidence in our current conclusions, so abide by our recommendations understanding that percentage.

Gosh. That’s a lot of work. Let’s just tell folks to wash their hands all day (NOT).