4 ms·
Poll: How smart are you?
- apgwoz 19y agoCan't I be just be the average news.yc reader?
- curi 19y agoChoice added.
- pg 19y agoThis could produce misleading results if there is a difference between voters and lurkers, because voters are only a few percent of visitors.
- brlewis 19y agoPointing out a single aspect of this poll that "could produce misleading results" is a form of humor so subtle that only the smartest 5% of news.yc readers will get it.
- emacdona 19y agoActually, I laughed at your (less subtle) comment. I did not laugh at the one to which you replied, which is allegedly more subtle, though I could only know that if I was in the top 5%. I didn't find it funny, ergo I am not in the top 5%. I guess I'll vote "average". Well, at least that's settled.
- Xichekolas 19y agoI voted for every option... everyone has good and bad days.
- ph0rque 19y agocan you explain it for the other 95% of us ;~) ?
- brlewis 19y agoThis poll is uniquely distorted by the multitude of different reasons people might have for not voting, or for voting a certain way. Ideally, "I'm going with my gut" as curi asked. Sometimes "I'm a confident winner, so I'm voting top 5%" Sometimes "It would be arrogant to vote above average; I'll vote average." Sometimes "This poll is dumb. I usually vote but I'll lurk." Sometimes "This poll is hilarious. I usually lurk but I'll vote." Sometimes "This poll is so dumb I'm voting bottom 5% just because I considered voting in it." Sometimes "I'll vote for all options; everybody has good/bad days." Sometimes "Can you really vote more than one? Let me try..." For pg to casually mention a source of error that applies to all news.yc polls is like walking up to someone who's been splattered head to toe by a passing truck and saying, "You've got something next to your mouth, right there."
- mixmax 19y agoIf the votes are accurate, which of course they must be, then voters are smarter than lurkers.
- curi 19y agoNo, you don't get it at all. Voters in my poll are smarter than people who don't vote in my polls.
- Prrometheus 19y agoI really don’t know how to compare myself to YC readers. I imagine the population is quite intelligent, and I am quite intelligent as well. I guess that I would be within a standard deviation of the mean. Didn’t vote.
- misterbwong 19y agoNot wanting to threadcrap, but what is the point of this poll? Are you compiling these stats for something?
- curi 19y agoTo see if the results come out heavily skewed or not.
- Xichekolas 19y agoLike the experiment that shows that most people consider themselves to be above average?
- curi 19y agoYes, well, it could have been like that, but "exactly average" has taken the lead...
- ardit33 19y agosmarter people are probably more likeley to say "average" as they are more likely to know their limits, while clueless people don't know their limit, hence they think they are better than everybody else. Kinda odd, like that experiment where good students rated themselves as average, while crappy students rated themselves as better.
- kennon 19y agoRight, and then you could argue that people who actually think of themselves as "smart" will know of such experiments, and will thus rate themselves as "average," knowing that such a label actually indicates that they really are smart. So basically this kind of survey says very little at all.
- mixmax 19y agoThe parent link is actually referring to an established study in behavioral economics. It is extremely interesting to learn how the human mind is sometimes way off in relation to reality.
- socratees 19y agoHow do we compare? What's the metric? - I guess this poll needs to be more specific.
- pchristensen 19y agoDang, this is no fun. It mostly fits a bell curve. Normally if you ask this, you'll get like 75-90% of people saying they're above average ("How good of a driver are you?" is a classic).
- curi 19y agoMaybe news.yc readers are above average, compared to those other people :) Or maybe they have heard about those other results and are intentionally voting for underrepresented options to make the poll come out less ridiculous. Or maybe voter/lurker bias is the real problem ;)
- mixmax 19y agoI think the problem is that the voters are smart enough to know the statistical classification for this kind of poll and vote accordingly to plug the holes. So in this poll I'm pretty dumb.
- mrtron 19y agoThis sort of poll is why I think polls should have to be pre-approved by an editor, or something of that sort.
- curi 19y agoCan I be an editor? I voted that I'm in the top 5%.
- Electro 19y agoSorry, but people in power are rarely in the top 5% in intelligence. However, if it was popularity then sure! Everybody loves a pretty face.
- curi 19y agoIf only you were in the top 5% you would have noticed I was joking ;p Edit: Oh come on. He's saying an editor would have blocked this poll. I posted the poll so I should be disqualified, but suggested that I be an editor. And based that on my own arrogant self-evaluation from within the poll that a good editor would (apparently) have blocked. And I didn't even say I am in the top 5%, only that I voted that way, which is a ridiculous way to assert intelligence.
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]
- Xichekolas 19y agoI think you missed the irony. The fact that he voted himself in the top 5% almost ensures that he is in fact not (according to the original study... assuming I remember correctly)... so he would make a great Editor!
- moog 19y agoI think you should pay for them in karma points. 50-100 would do it. New members can still register and 'Ask YC', so they won't be penalised too much.
- rokhayakebe 19y agowhat is "smart"? and please do not give me a link to wikipedia.
- comatose_kid 19y agoRushing off to create a new poll: "How smart does your mother think you are?"
- raghus 19y agoLake YC-gon: where all the readers are above average
- ivankirigin 19y agoI'm from Lake Wobegon, so I know I'm smarter than average. Like everyone else.
- cedsav 19y agoVoted bottom 5% (must not be that smart since I don't understand the point of the poll)
- asmosoinio 19y agoI'll vote whatever this guys votes: http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2008034074801.gif http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2008...
- edu 19y agoThe average is not a good reference! Median for president!
- DaniFong 19y agoBetcha the poll would have come out different had you hidden the results as you took them.
- ilitirit 19y agoWhere is the "Smartest person on YC" option?