In contrast, many people think that economists, sociologists, and psychologists are soft scientists who throw around meaningless jargon so they can get tenure. To the extent this was ever true, the Big Data revolution has changed that. If Karl Popper were alive today and attended a presentation by Raj Chetty, Jesse Shapiro, Esther Duflo, or (humor me) myself, I strongly suspect he would not have the same reaction he had back then. To be honest, he might be more likely to question whether today’s great string theorists are truly scientific or just engaging in self-indulgent mental gymnastics.
