In response to NIH's findings that expert peer review cannot predict research quality, a group of microbiologists proposed that the rational solution would be to replace expert evaluation with random selection: put all 80,000 grant applications in a cylindrical container and select them randomly.

factualpending

Speaker

Malcolm Gladwell

Evidence Quote

a bunch of microbiologists published this paper where they said well the only rational thing to do now is to tell all of the grant reviewers to go home...just have a big round cylindrical container put all the applications in the container and pick them out at random

Source

A Perspective with Malcolm GladwellGoogle Zeitgeist
Created: 8/13/2026, 7:47:10 AM

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