HN user
Yes reading nonfiction maximizes knowledge absorption with respect to time and cost. But that is not the objective of literary fiction.
Literary fiction maximizes "emotional sensation". This is a futile attribute in humans who should instead be maximizing their utility.
Your statements about scientists are an overfit.
Randomized controlled trials: http://m.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/05/17/100517fa_fact_pa...
Randomized controlled trials to study poverty: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/86...
Game. Set. Match.
I used to work in government IT. A lot of people are wondering why the projects so pricey and why there are so many issues.
1) The RFQ/bidding process isn't as logical as you'd imagine.
2) There are layers on top of layers on top of layers of bureaucracy. The government is its own regulator, not the market. There are no shareholders or VCs that can curtail the government's power. Elections and recalls are slower signals by orders of magnitude.
3) government projects fail all the time. You just don't hear about it because then heads would roll, which is faux past in the public sector.