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Does X cause Y? An in-depth evidence review (2021)

This summarizes the frustratingly ambiguous state of the evidence for pretty much any "Does X cause Y?" question you might have.

I think maybe X was enriched preschool, or just school itself, or eating fish while pregnant, or the Paleo diet, or lead exposure, or a clever "nudge" policy trying to get people to save more, or some self-help technique, or some micronutrient or public health intervention, or democracy, or free trade, or some approach to intellectual property law. And Y was ... lifetime earnings, or risk of ADHD diagnosis, or IQ in adulthood, or weight loss, or violent crime, or peaceful foreign policy, or GDP per capita, or innovation. This led to an intense back-and-forth between the original authors and the skeptic, stretched out over years because each response had to be published in a journal, and by the time I got to the end of it I didn't have any idea what to think anymore.

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