67 | A hypothesis is a liability

In this episode, Itai and Martin delve into the interplay between hypothesis-driven and exploratory research, drawing on insights from past guests of the Night Science Podcast. They discuss how being focused on a single hypothesis can prevent us from making discoveries, while emphasizing the value of open-ended exploratory analyses—often dismissed as “fishing expeditions.” The episode also examines the risks inherent to both approaches: hypothesis-driven Day Science may overlook key insights, while exploratory Night Science risks being misled by randomness.


This episode was supported by Research Theory (researchtheory.org). 
For more information about Night Science, visit https://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/night-science .

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:55 Inhabiting the data
• 5:31 Digging outliers
• 9:45 Fishing expeditions
• 15:18 Thanking our sponsors
• 15:54 Triangulation in exploratory analysis
• 22:01 Exploration can thrive at small scales
• 27:23 Looking for patterns
• 31:00 The data-hypothesis conversation
• 34:13 Explore with caution
• 39:04 Credits