科学与数学calteches.library.caltech.edu编辑精选
货物崇拜科学（1974）
Cargo Cult Science (1974)
2016 — 2021，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这是费曼 1974 年在加州理工学院毕业典礼上的著名演讲《货物崇拜科学》。他指出，科学研究不能只模仿形式，而必须诚实报告所有证据、不欺骗自己；他特别批评了教育研究和软科学中缺乏严谨验证的现象。
为什么经久不衰：它对科学诚信与自欺的警告跨越领域，今天仍可用来审视心理学复制危机、软件工程“最佳实践”等只学形式不问证据的问题。
HN 评论精选
用“权力姿势”无法复现的案例说明软科学缺乏严谨的严重后果。
在软科学中抓住公众想象力的实验里，最糟糕的例子之一是“权力姿势”：只要像超级英雄一样站在镜子前，就会发生可测量的化学变化并提升能力。发现者因此获得著名 TED 演讲、畅销书和哈佛教职，但无人能复现后，这一切崩塌了。科学、至少软科学能走到这一步，令人羞耻。
seibelj查看英文原文
Out of all the experiments in the soft sciences that captured society’s imagination, one of the most egregious is “Power Posing”.[0] The idea is that you stand like a superhero in front of a mirror and all of these measurable chemical changes happen that improve your abilities. The professor that discovered this phenomena had a famous TED talk, a bestselling book, switched her faculty position to Harvard, and basically rode that to success in her professional and public life.[1] All of this came crashing down when no one could replicate her experiments. It’s absolutely incredible that things got this far in science, or at least the soft sciences. Shameful [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_posing [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Cuddy
软件工程中的优化也常流于形式，应像费曼所说以实验检验理论。
软件优化常常很“货物崇拜”：完全不做测量，或做毫无意义的测量，相当常见。现在人们似乎更认真了，工具更好，技术通过博客分享，好的会流行，坏的最终会倒掉。费曼说“如果实验与理论不符，那就是理论错了”，他的智慧在我的职业生涯中很有影响；《别闹了，费曼先生》也值得一读。
harry8查看英文原文
Optimising software has frequently been very cargo cult-ish. No measurements at all or measurements that tell you nothing have been pretty common. It seems it's more common to take it seriously now, also tools are better and techniques get written up on blogs and shared, some of the good ones catch on, some of the bad ones eventually fall over. "If experiment doesn't match theory the theory is wrong." Feynman has been the source of a good bit of wisdom in my career and life. Re-post and re-discuss often. If you haven't, "Surely you're joking..." It's worth your time and will also entertain. I should read it again, it's been a while.
心理学直到复制危机才正视可复现性，且很少反思为何迟迟未做。
关心科学的人四十多年前就知道费曼的观点。但他讨论的心理学，直到近年复制危机以无法忽视的方式证明问题有多严重，才开始认真对待如何复现研究。现在这成了热门话题，大家谈论我们如何改进了研究，却很少讨论这本来就是应该早就知道的。
btilly查看英文原文
Everyone who cares about science has known his point for over 40 years now. But Psychology, the subject he was discussing, continued to not take figuring out how to replicate seriously until the recent replication crisis demonstrated exactly HOW bad it was in terms that they couldn't ignore. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis for more on that. And now it is a hot topic with lots of, "Look at what we've figured out about how to make our research better!" With very little discussion of the fact that this was something they should have known all along.
费曼批评的教育与刑事司法领域，四十年后严谨性仍无明显进步。
最打动我的是，费曼在 1974 年就感叹：我们在如何教学、如何管理犯罪和刑事司法系统上缺乏科学严谨。四十年过去，这两方面在应用严谨性上仍很难说有多大改善。
kirrent查看英文原文
The parts that always strike me the most about this is that in 1974 Feynman lamented a lack of scientific rigour in deciding how we teach and how we manage crime and the criminal justice system. In both cases, despite 40 years having passed, it's hard to say there's been any large improvement in the application of rigour.
历次讨论
同类还值得读
如果月球只有 1 像素：一个极其精确的太阳系模型（2014）
If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)
一个网页版太阳系模型，以“如果月亮只有 1 像素”的真实比例呈现：你必须一路横向滚动，才能体会行星之间空旷到何等程度。
科学与数学上首页 7 次 · 2014–2025joshworth.com编辑精选沉浸式线性代数（2016）
Immersive Linear Algebra (2016)
《Immersive Linear Algebra》是一本完全免费、开放在线的线性代数“超文本教科书”，其最大特色是大量可交互的图形：读者可以直接拖动、操作图中的向量、矩阵和变换…
科学与数学上首页 5 次 · 2015–2024immersivemath.com编辑精选如何将贝果切成两个相连的半环（2009）
How to Slice a Bagel into Two Linked Halves (2009)
数学家 George Hart 的经典教程，演示如何用一刀把贝果切成两个相互扣住的环，并附上切割步骤与数学原理。
科学与数学上首页 5 次 · 2009–2022georgehart.com“犹太问题”：一组用于歧视的数学题
Jewish problems
一篇 arXiv 论文，整理并讨论苏联时期犹太学生在申请大学数学系时被问到的特殊数学难题：这些题往往有简单解法却极难想到，被用作面试中拒绝犹太考生的手段。
科学与数学上首页 5 次 · 2011–2021arxiv.org你的身体并非为长久而造：人类死亡率数据的一课
Your body wasn’t built to last: a lesson from human mortality rates
文章从人类死亡率随年龄变化的统计规律出发，解释身体并非为长久使用而设计：年轻时死亡风险较低，之后随年龄近似指数上升，像复杂系统在不断累积损伤。
科学与数学上首页 5 次 · 2009–2018gravityandlevity.wordpress.com