"Half of X is pointless, we just don't know which half". Can you identify the quote?

September 8, 2009 4:12 AM

Can you help me find the origins of a poorly remembered quote? I think it's about research, and it goes something like this: "Half of X is pointless, but you can never know which half".
posted by handee to grab bag (6 comments total)

The version I've seen usually refers to advertising.
posted by Electric Dragon at 4:27 AM on September 8 [1 favorite]

I heard it regarding education, but it seems there is some confusion as to where/when this quote actually originated:

http://staff.washington.edu/gray/misc/which-half.html
posted by alchemist at 4:28 AM on September 8

On similar lines, this quotation from Kitson Clark's Guide for Research Students Working on Historical Subjects (1958): 'One of the earliest and most painful lessons which a young researcher must master is that much that he has discovered with difficulty, and with some exaltation, will prove to be of no significance and of no imaginable interest, and in the end will have to be left out.'

Kitson Clark belonged to the old school of research supervisors, the school of 'Are you MAN enough to do a PhD, my boy?' where the aim was to make historical research appear as uninviting as possible, in order to discourage all but the really able students. Nevertheless, I think this remark is very wise. Of course the converse is also true, that much that one discovers by accident, and that appears at first to be of no significance, will prove in the end to be absolutely central to one's research.
posted by verstegan at 4:49 AM on September 8

Edward Tufte attributes this Dr. E. E. Peacock:
"One day when I was a junior medical student, a very important Boston surgeon visited the school and delivered a great treatise on a large number of patients who had undergone successful operations for vascular reconstruction. At the end of the lecture, a young student at the back of the room timidly asked, “Do you have any controls?” Well, the great surgeon drew himself up to his full height, hit the desk, and said, “Do you mean did I not operate on half the patients?” The hall grew very quiet then. The voice at the back of the room very hesitantly replied, “Yes, that’s what I had in mind.” Then the visitor’s fist really came down as he thundered, “Of course not. That would have doomed half of them to their death.” God, it was quiet then, and one could scarcely hear the small voice ask, “Which half?”"
posted by Killick at 5:42 AM on September 8 [13 favorites]

Almost a century ago, retailer John Wannamaker is purported to have said “half of all advertising works, I just don’t know which half.” (This quote is often attributed to PR maven David Ogilvy but my quick persual of the Googlesphere seems to show Wannamaker significantly predating Ogilvy.)

Source: http://doctordisruptive.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/advertising-2-0-and-facebooks-valuation/
posted by mikewas at 6:50 AM on September 8

I have always heard it about medicine. It's in an apocryphal story about a commencement speech for all the new doctors:
"I am sorry to tell you that after your many years of study, we now know that half of what we taught you is wrong. The problem is, we don't know which half."
posted by RobotNinja at 7:56 AM on September 8 [1 favorite]