The Wine Solution

Why the wine solution doesn’t work. i.e., a negative treatment effect in a highly flawed experiment.

After a great game of volleyball (won one; lost one – but it was close) it was time to get back to writing. It was suggested (by Anna*, noted doc student) that wine helps with writing first drafts – and Andrew*, noted associate professor of sociology) noted that since nobody was going to read the draft, all would be well.

Here are the problems with that solution and why I have to report a negative treatment finding (although I do not mean to imply that we shouldn’t play volleyball):

1. My fingers got jammed somewhere during the game so when I went to type, I couldn’t type any words that included letters that required any reach. That includes important letters like t and w; critical in professional writing. W was particularly painful.

 2. Apple wanted to install a new update. Without wine, I would have carefully selected “later”. However, I did not and went outside to enjoy a beautiful sunset while my computer took 20 minutes to install updates (I noticed no statistical difference).

 3. Because my mind was really not interested in running descriptive statistics, I then decided to look for recipes for chicken pot pie. I know. Sounds yummy and that is what Jay is having for dinner tonight – as soon as I quit writing why the wine experiment produced a negative treatment effect.

 4. So I am now writing an entry for my “Cabin Tails” blog (yes really – I have one follower – my son. Not even my husband and daughters follow me). Actually, my husband does follow me (good thing).

 5. I shall share my findings with the key volleyball participants because it would be nice to see whether the null findings (well negative findings when it comes to productivity – depending on how you define productivity) of the wine experiment can be replicated.

*Pseudonyms to protect confidentiality.