Generalisations : Not So Cool

Have you ever come across articles/blogs with convenient generalisations? They annoy me and bug me. How can whatever you have to say broadly apply to I don't know over hundreds of thousands of people? Even polls aren't reliable, how can what you say is?

Our sample space, is so limited by our reach that it is impossible to generalise.

Take for example, a friend of mine tells me that her help back home is voting for Modi (true story back in 2014, when Indian elections were a hot topic). Now do you think it is right for me to extrapolate the hell out of this and say well people of all strata want to vote for Modi. That is because, I ( middle strata), another rich friend of min (supposedly higher strata) and a friend's maid(lower strata) supports him? It did turn out to be correct, a stopped clock also tells you the right time twice in a day!

Recently a guy wrote an article about Indian urban elite (sorry not linking it here). The gist of the article was, we (urban elites) are a bunch of whiners and no good doers. If I may dare to call myself an urban elite according to his dictionary, the description didn't fit. It wouldn't fit for a lot of people I know. Would I become the exception to his rule or his rule is just plain and stupid if there are so many exceptions.

Maybe the dude just needs to get a better set of law abiding friends.

Papa don't preach!

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