Scott Alexander examines a pseudoscientific claim about the Great Pyramid of Giza to illustrate how coincidences can appear more significant than they are, relating this to challenges in evaluating scientific studies.
Longer summary
Scott Alexander discusses a pseudoscientific claim that the Great Pyramid of Giza's location encodes the speed of light to seven decimal places. He breaks down the coincidence, explaining how it's less impressive than it initially appears due to various degrees of freedom in the calculation. He then uses this as a jumping-off point to discuss how similar issues can arise in legitimate scientific studies, referencing Andrew Gelman's 'garden of forking paths' concept. The post concludes by emphasizing the difficulty of fully dissecting such coincidences, even when actively looking for explanations, and how this applies to evaluating scientific studies.
Shorter summary