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I love Elizabeth Zwicky's explanation at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=C4rrhbs-eA0#t=5073 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player

by dalke 11y ago

I love Elizabeth Zwicky's explanation at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=C4rrhbs-eA0#t=5073 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=C4r... : > "Engineers do not give out 5s. If you tell an engineer that the possible rating scale is 1 to 5 and they like you, they give you a 4. Because tomorrow they might love you and then they would give you a 5. They probably won't, but they might, so they give you a 4 so that they have room. We all are totally okay with this. But the world is also full of this other class of people who if they like you give you a 5. They're quite consistent about it. 'I like you. I see nothing wrong with that. I'm giving you a 5.'"

wpietri 11y ago
Hah! I definitely do this. And I do it on the other end too, as is documented in the XKCD about 1-10 pain scales: https://xkcd.com/883/ https://xkcd.com/883/
- dalke 11y ago
  "We all are totally okay with this." Just be aware when you cross cultural boundaries. In one real-world story, a woman was asked, on a 10 point scale, how much pain she was in. My take of the story was that she interpreted it linearly, so said something like "2", where most people would have said "9" or "10". She was told to come back when the pain got worse, when it was already excruciating. My memory might be off - it's from Bliss's essay at http://www.radiolab.org/story/233143-pain-scale/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/233143-pain-scale/ .