Design Time is a Substitute for Controlled Randomization: Part 1

The basic idea of this post is that if it takes 10 hours to make a randomized controlled trial (RCT) credible by careful design, then it would require more than 10 hours carefully designing an observational study to make it as credible. I try to explain my logic below but if I’m correct, it means time and effort are substitutes for controlled randomiz…