We have emphasized that in situations like hiring, admissions, and medicine, some noise-reduction strategies might turn out to be crude; they might forbid forms of individualized treatment that, while noisy, would produce fewer errors on balance. But if a noise-reduction strategy is crude, then, as we have urged, the best response is to try to come up with a better strategy—one attuned to a wide range of relevant variables. And if that better strategy eliminates noise and produces fewer errors, it would have obvious advantages over individualized treatment, even if it reduces or eliminates the
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