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game_the0ryyesterday at 2:00 PM1 replyview on HN

So, I upvoted your comment bc I genuinely believe there is something in your comments worth learning from, but...

> This is a qualitative methods paper, so statistical significance is not relevant.

I have never heard of a "qualitative methods paper" and it sounds like something a researcher would do to push a narrative with "qualitative data" rather than data that could be measured.

Tell me why I am wrong.


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flurieyesterday at 3:26 PM

You're not necessarily wrong, but the phrase "push a narrative," the scare quotes around "qualitative data," and your initial comment suggest to me that you are not familiar with qualitative research but have a bias or mistrust against it (no judgment, just stating my observation). If you would like to know more about it, this[1] provides a reasonable overview, and if you would like to know much more, I can ask my spouse, who is a qualitative methodologist in medicine at an R1[2], for her recommendations. I can also tell you what I think of this specific paper, but I did not want it to color my initial comment.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualitative_research

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_research_universities_...

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