3 ms·
I wonder what percentage of HN users would subscribe to this sentence for some values of X and Y: "I am worse at task X than person Y for genetic reasons."
by cousin_it 9y ago
I wonder what percentage of HN users would subscribe to this sentence for some values of X and Y: "I am worse at task X than person Y for genetic reasons."
- 4bpp 9y agoWhy not run a poll rather than speculate idly? (Of course, the interesting comparison is probably between the percentage that would say that with "better" and with "worse" respectively. You'd also want some restrictions on the set X is drawn from to prevent worthless positives from low-status values of X such as sports, social skills or rote memorisation)
- falcolas 9y agoWell, add one. "I am worse at interpersonal interactions than my brother-in-law for genetic reasons." I'd also say that this is actually very easy to say, since you can also pick out genetic anomalies: I could say the sentence about swimming and Michael Phelps, or running and Usain Bolt, without a single person being offended or disagreeing. If you want to make the sentence controversial, you need to replace "person Y" with "genetic group Y"; i.e. men, women, caucasians, blacks, asians, mongoloids, or so on.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- barry-cotter 9y agoI am worse at playing basketball than the average high school basketball player because I’m of average height, have poor hand eye coordination and a terrible vertical jump, all of which are largely genetic. I am worse at math than the average physics undergrad for genetic reasons, low conscientiousness and interest.