If you are a politician, being a flip flopper is a negative label your opponent tries to lay on you as an indication that you follow the crowd of public opinion. This seems a bit unfair as admitting your were wrong would also seem to demonstrate you are open to better information and can change your mind rather than being dogmatic. Dogmatic vs. flexible – I can go either way on this issue. (Note – you must read what I write making an effort to laugh when I try to be humorous. I will stop putting in these reminders only when people start contacting me to say I am funny. I will interpret as a compliment the observation that I have an unusual sense of humor.)
Science appears to suffer from this same dilemma when it comes to advising the public on practical issues. If you work as an educator, whether you should assign homework or not seems to change from one week to the next. Food science and health have a similar problem. Eggs are good for you and then they are not. Potatoes are another source of uncertainty. I think wine is a “yes”, but I can never remember if it is just red wine or all wines. What about beer? I prefer Jack, but I count this as one of my few bad habits and everyone should be allowed one or two.
[Sparrow Cafe]
I decided to visit a new coffee shop today because coffee is now officially in. Even NPR says so. Even better – the newest science says you can have 3-5 cups. This should be just about enough to get me through the day. I am ignoring the part about decaf.
So, join me while you can. No way to know when the other flip flop will fall.