5 ms·

I can't even see the original multiple choice question. What was it?

by iamwil 16y ago

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
If you choose an answer at random, what is the probability of being right: A:25%, B:50%, C:0%, D:25%.
- JoeAltmaier 16y ago
  And I wondered why my brilliant answer got ignored: "use a weighted 4-sided die that comes up "B" half the time. So B is correct."
- jodrellblank 16y ago
  If I'm stated to be picking an answer at random, in what sense am I choosing?
  - RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
    I can't tell if you're trying to be serious and adding something to the discussion, or if you're just being snarky. I'll assume you're being serious. Selecting an answer at random, in my dialect of English, can be said to be choosing. In my dialect of English "to choose" does not necessarily imply the exercise of free will and decision. Thus, "to choose at random" makes sense, and might be regarded as "to select at random" without any implication of a deliberate decision (except the decision to follow the random "choice"). Does that answer your question?
    - jodrellblank 16y ago
      I was being serious - if I answer based on "randomly" then I might get one answer, if I answer based on "thinking it through and trying to work something out", I might get another. But I've expanded my reply so it's less relevant now. [edit: oops, or replied again].
- jodrellblank 16y ago
  If I'm stated to be picking an answer at random, in what sense am I choosing? This seems like an observation about either pointers or Meta-questions. If I pick an answer to {an unspecified thing}, what is the probability of being right?. Choose A/B/C/D. First, I have to assume the {unspecified thing} is your question itself. Then model a clone of your question, then based on the answers to the clone model, answer your real question. Then I have to make some assumptions about the biases in my random selector (i.e. it has none and picks each option on average 25% of the time). Then I have to make some assumptions about whether one of the answers is right and three are wrong, or if more than one can be right. If I assume one is right and three are wrong, then A and D are ruled out, so the right answer must be B or C. C can't be right, so it must be B, so my chance of picking "B" and getting the right answer is 25%. So I answer your real question either A or D. If I assume that A or D could be right, then I assume B and C are wrong and get a 50% chance of picking correctly, so I answer your real question B. I guess I could carry on and say "if no answer is right and I always pick one of the four, then I have no chance of answering correctly and answer your meta-question with C" and then see if I can sum up all the potential assumption answers and see if it resolves to a most likely sum-over-histories style answer. But that sounds like work.
tokenadult 16y ago
Can't all users see deaded threads if they just turn on [showdead] in their user profiles?
- Jun8 16y ago
  Thanks for the tip, just turned it on and now I can see the question. There must be a lot of HNers like me who don't know this, though. I cannot understand the point of hiding deadened questions while still keeping the comments?
  - steveklabnik 16y ago
    > I cannot understand the point of hiding deadened questions while still keeping the comments? It's all about removing the visibility. If the story is hidden, so are the comments, and so there's no reason to [dead] all of the comments too. The only way to see those comments is if you have showdead on anyway...
    - Jun8 16y ago
      That is not exactly true. When I browsed to the link given on this post with showdead off, I was still able to see the comments, which is weird.
      - steveklabnik 16y ago
        What I meant was, without the direct link, you wouldn't have ever seen the story, not that the page would have 404d.
  - pohl 16y ago
    I cannot understand the point of hiding deadened questions while still keeping the comments? It makes sense to me. If the users flag & kill a link submitted by spammers, the spammers get no value from it because, by default, a spider won't be able to follow the HN page to the URL the spammers wanted to promote. But keeping the comments helps users at HN get a feel for how the article was initially received.

I can't even see the original multiple choice question. What was it?

by iamwil 16y ago

I can't even see the original multiple choice question. What was it?

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago

If you choose an answer at random, what is the probability of being right: A:25%, B:50%, C:0%, D:25%.

JoeAltmaier 16y ago
And I wondered why my brilliant answer got ignored: "use a weighted 4-sided die that comes up "B" half the time. So B is correct."
jodrellblank 16y ago
If I'm stated to be picking an answer at random, in what sense am I choosing?
- RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
  I can't tell if you're trying to be serious and adding something to the discussion, or if you're just being snarky. I'll assume you're being serious. Selecting an answer at random, in my dialect of English, can be said to be choosing. In my dialect of English "to choose" does not necessarily imply the exercise of free will and decision. Thus, "to choose at random" makes sense, and might be regarded as "to select at random" without any implication of a deliberate decision (except the decision to follow the random "choice"). Does that answer your question?
  - jodrellblank 16y ago
    I was being serious - if I answer based on "randomly" then I might get one answer, if I answer based on "thinking it through and trying to work something out", I might get another. But I've expanded my reply so it's less relevant now. [edit: oops, or replied again].
jodrellblank 16y ago
If I'm stated to be picking an answer at random, in what sense am I choosing? This seems like an observation about either pointers or Meta-questions. If I pick an answer to {an unspecified thing}, what is the probability of being right?. Choose A/B/C/D. First, I have to assume the {unspecified thing} is your question itself. Then model a clone of your question, then based on the answers to the clone model, answer your real question. Then I have to make some assumptions about the biases in my random selector (i.e. it has none and picks each option on average 25% of the time). Then I have to make some assumptions about whether one of the answers is right and three are wrong, or if more than one can be right. If I assume one is right and three are wrong, then A and D are ruled out, so the right answer must be B or C. C can't be right, so it must be B, so my chance of picking "B" and getting the right answer is 25%. So I answer your real question either A or D. If I assume that A or D could be right, then I assume B and C are wrong and get a 50% chance of picking correctly, so I answer your real question B. I guess I could carry on and say "if no answer is right and I always pick one of the four, then I have no chance of answering correctly and answer your meta-question with C" and then see if I can sum up all the potential assumption answers and see if it resolves to a most likely sum-over-histories style answer. But that sounds like work.

tokenadult 16y ago

Can't all users see deaded threads if they just turn on [showdead] in their user profiles?

Jun8 16y ago
Thanks for the tip, just turned it on and now I can see the question. There must be a lot of HNers like me who don't know this, though. I cannot understand the point of hiding deadened questions while still keeping the comments?
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  > I cannot understand the point of hiding deadened questions while still keeping the comments? It's all about removing the visibility. If the story is hidden, so are the comments, and so there's no reason to [dead] all of the comments too. The only way to see those comments is if you have showdead on anyway...
  - Jun8 16y ago
    That is not exactly true. When I browsed to the link given on this post with showdead off, I was still able to see the comments, which is weird.
    - steveklabnik 16y ago
      What I meant was, without the direct link, you wouldn't have ever seen the story, not that the page would have 404d.
- pohl 16y ago
  I cannot understand the point of hiding deadened questions while still keeping the comments? It makes sense to me. If the users flag & kill a link submitted by spammers, the spammers get no value from it because, by default, a spider won't be able to follow the HN page to the URL the spammers wanted to promote. But keeping the comments helps users at HN get a feel for how the article was initially received.