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I have been in most capitals in Europe, and in quite a few cities of USA, and totally agree with the story. Of course there are some individual exceptions, but he is talking about the feeling from different cities, the state of public transportation or healthcare, which IMHO is fairly generalizable.


You are doing it too.

Our lives are not random samples.


But is it fair to say that observers with more samples have a better vantage point than observers with fewer?


Yes, of course experience can be very valuable! However, it's rather tricky to share with people you don't know. You can't just make a bare assertion:

"Life is much better in Europe than in the US."

"How do you know?"

"Someone said so on the Internet."

You see? It doesn't transfer.

I think it makes more sense to tell stories of specific things that happened to you, and let people make their own generalizations.




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