The evidence

What would settle it

Nine empirical claims, and what evidence each would actually need. For four of them no such evidence exists anywhere.

Claims this part is about, and what each was answered with

The claimKindAnswered with

New starters take longer to become productive remotely

Empirical→Evidence

The one claim answered with evidence that measured it

Productivity fell when we went remote

Empirical→Data

Remote workers put in longer hours than office workers

Empirical·Nothing; it was never answered

Empirical — could be settled by evidence: 3→Answered in its own kind: 2·Never answered: 1

three claims · three empirical · none of the answered ones was answered in the wrong kind · one was never answered at all

Three empirical claims with three different fates.

Nine empirical claims

Every claim on the record that evidence could in principle settle, what each one would need, and whether anybody has it.

The commonest failure in this argument, and the one that looks most like rigour. Three cases from the record, and the two questions that catch it.

Four claims that look empirical, are asserted with great confidence, and have never been measured by anybody. Why those two things go together.

Four things research on this subject genuinely establishes, four it is routinely made to say, and the difference between them.

Out of twenty-four, exactly one empirical claim got evidence that measured it. Worth describing in full, because it took an afternoon.

The most useful question in the argument, four ways to phrase it badly, and the two phrasings that get answered.

Both sides have one. They are the most-repeated claims in the argument and they cannot be wrong, which is not the same as being right.

Two claims on this record could have been settled with data already held. Neither was. The reason is not difficulty.

Four checks, about ten minutes, that will tell you whether a paper bears on the claim it was produced for. Most do not.