Besides, he didn't write this in a textbook. What he probably meant is something more like, if anecdotes seem to be pointing in a certain direction, it may be worth exploring the causes and understanding them, rather than just ignoring the anecdotes because they contradict some other information you have. What you don't know can hurt you.

This is the kind of thing good CEOs and leaders do. There's some overlap with Andy Grove's observation that "only the paranoid survive."