How many social scientists does it take to change a light bulb?

"Creative Commons Lightbulb = Change"
by Alexis O'Toole is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Question: How many social scientists does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer: Social scientists do not change light bulbs.

The act of changing a light bulb implicitly constitutes a replication of the previous installation of the light bulb. It is, in effect, saying that there was something wrong with the original installation of the light bulb. Such a replication therefore constitutes an attack on the integrity of the original light bulb installer and thus, in the act of light bulb changing, the light bulb changer or the original light bulb installer may be shown to be inferior at the task of screwing on light bulbs. The profound naiveté or chilling mean-spiritedness at work in the act of thus changing a light bulb does nothing to improve lighting.

See http://wjh.harvard.edu/~jmitchel/writing/failed_science.htm

On Edit: replaced final link with archived version.