Yes! Bookmarked for future reference. Sometimes I just sit and think about how hilariously crazy our world is that we have to ask anyone to please figure out what they want to know first before deciding on their methods. We are so used to this behaviour that we don't appreciate how weird it is.

It *is* crazy how we are so used to it that asking for an estimand seems an unreasonable request 🫣 but I think ppl are working on alternatives. Like the stats/data science textbook by Llaudet and Imai, Chapter 1: Introduction, Chapter 2: Estimating Causal Effects with Randomized Experiments.

But it's also not surprising because we often teach methods in a vacuum, without reference to a research question. When I think about my training (which was in a great department), I can hardly remember any lectures on how to ask a good question.