i think about this all the time for my work, because a lot of the stuff that we've written in freconomics deals with this directly correlation that doesn't rise to causation. But it is funny when you ask it in the context of like a life story, whether it's a memoir or biography. So i am curious to know, are you reading a biography and deciding whether or not to believe it? As iaare you trying to figure out whether churchill really did what he was supposed to have done? Sure's why i thought about it.
Also: how can we stop confusing correlation with causation?