Asher Meir points to this hilarious post by Alexey Guzey entitled, Matthew Walker’s “Why We Sleep” Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors.
Just to start with, the post has a wonderful descriptive title. And the laffs start right away:
![[Table of contents for Guzey’s criticisms of Walker’s claims]](/doc/statistics/bias/2019-guzey-whywesleep-tableofcontents.png)
Positively Nabokovian, I’d say. I mean it. The above table of contents makes me want to read more.
I’ve not read Walker’s book and I don’t know anything about sleep research, so I won’t try to judge Guzey’s claims. I read through and I found Guzey’s arguments to be persuasive, but, hey, I’m easily persuaded.
I’d be happy to read a followup article by Michael Walker, “Alexey Guzey’s ‘Matthew Walker’s “Why We Sleep” Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors’ Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors.” That (hypothetical) post could completely turn me around! Then, of course, I’d be waiting for Guzey’s reply, “Michael Walker’s ‘Alexey Guzey’s “Matthew Walker’s ‘Why We Sleep’ Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors” Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors’ Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors.” At that point, I’d probably have heard enough to have formed a firm opinion. Right now, the ball is totally in Walker’s court.
…Let me tell you a story. I went to graduate school at Harvard. Finest university in the world. My first day in a Harvard class, I was sitting with rapt attention, learning all sorts of interesting and important things (for reals; it was an amazing class that motivated me to become a statistician), sitting at one of those chairs with a desk attached to it, you know, the kind of chair where the desk part flips up so it’s in front of you, and, on the bottom of that desk was a wad of gum.
Back when I was in junior high, gum was almost a form of currency. I’d buy a pack of grape Bubble Yum for a quarter at the corner store on the way to school, then chew it in the morning during the endless hours between first period and lunch. I’d put one piece of gum in my mouth, chew it until it lost all its flavor, then add the second piece, chew it etc., and continue until I had a massive wad, all five pieces, ultimately flavorless, and I’d chew and chew and blow huge bubbles when the teacher wasn’t looking.
I’m not trying to make myself out into some big rebel here; the point is, we all did that. So of course there was yucky gum under all the desks. You knew to never run your hands under a desk, cos you never knew what might turn up. That was junior high.
Then in high school, everyone was much more mature, a lot less gum chewing…but still, gum under the desks. I took classes at the University of Maryland, a fine university with an OK basketball team…still, they had gum. Then I went to MIT, one of the finest engineering schools in the world…yup, gum. But Harvard? I’d hoped Harvard was better than that. But it wasn’t.
Anyway, that’s how I felt, learning that this purveyor of (possibly) horribly false claims is not just a professor of neuroscience at a top university—we know that top universities have lots of frauds—but was hired by Google. Google! Here I am, almost sixty years old (I don’t feel close to 60, but that’s my problem, not yours), and still there’s room for disillusionment.