&gt; <i>&quot;I was talking about this experiment&quot;</i><p>The analogies are meant to demonstrate that sample size is (1) not as straightforward as asking &quot;how many subjects&quot; and (2) less important in circumstances where the signal is strong.<p>In other words, we&#x27;re trying to give you the tools to evaluate for yourself.  The initial article is about <i>&quot;an experiment involving 11 people&quot;</i>, and your skepticism seemed to be about whether it&#x27;s even <i>possible</i> to get valid results with that sample size (answer: yes).  Even in this study, yes, you can get a valid result from &quot;only&quot; 11 people.