Chicken or Egg? Part II
I am entering a new era on this blog. I am now recycling post titles. Back in 2020, I wrote a post called Chicken or Egg? The subject of that post was on the importance of specifying a model before specifying the estimator. The subject of this post is different, but no less important. It is a mistake I have seen countless Ph.D. students make, especially when entering the research arena for the first time. Conversations with said students usually go something like this: Student: I think I have an idea for a paper. Elder Researcher: Okay. Student: But, I'm not sure it will work. My response to this is always the same. Elder Researcher: What do you mean by "work"? And the student's answer is always the same. Student: I'm not sure I will find something statistically significant. And ... gotcha. ...