4 ms·

Not one in 100,000 could milk a cow. I know this wasn't your point, but I'll nitpick anyway since that number felt too low, so I checked, and the number seems

Not one in 100,000 could milk a cow. I know this wasn't your point, but I'll nitpick anyway since that number felt too low, so I checked, and the number seems like it should be closer to 1 in 200. There are 72M children [1] below the age of 18 in the USA today, so 1 in 100,000 would only be 720 and there's something like 40,000 dairy farms in the USA, and I'd bet every child on those farms older than 8 (probably younger) could manage to milk a cow. The FFA has 700,000 members [2], and I'd bet that at least half of them could manage to milk a cow, so that's closer to 1 in 200. This isn't quite a fair comparison since the article above was referring only to "teens", not "children", and the FFA numbers include members up to age 21 and includes members in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands). [1] https://www.aecf.org/resources/the-changing-child-population-of-the-united-states/ https://www.aecf.org/resources/the-changing-child-population... [2] https://www.ffa.org/our-membership/ https://www.ffa.org/our-membership/

gumby 7y ago
Thanks for the clarification! I originally had typed "1 in 10,000" but that seemed too many kids....and it turns out I was utterly wrong!
- vidanay 7y ago
  Udderly
- dismalpedigree 7y ago
  turns out I was UDDERLY wrong! Long day. I’ll be here all week!
  - gumby 7y ago
    I suppose you recommend the...veal.
VLM 7y ago
4H has about 7 million members, all somewhat rural/outdoors in outlook and not all farm oriented, as a likely upper bound. Maybe 3 million kids would be expected to milk a cow, so maybe 1 in 20. In some states, nearly a million people per year visit the state fair and most would experience the "milk a cow" booth so essentially all kids above a relatively low socioeconomic level have made a pitiful attempt at milking a cow. Under a very broad and unassuming tent, perhaps a third of kids could be considered able to "manage to milk a cow". My minimal experience in cow milking is its hard to fail completely as long as you're not kicked in the face, but it is the kind of skill where experience and intelligence could pay off. Which brings us back around to an obvious comparison with the general public experience of mass market GUI user interfaces, LOL.
Izkata 7y ago
Could even be higher. I learned to milk a cow on a visit to a farm in the 90s as a kid, but grew up in the suburbs. Probably wasn't very good at it, but I have done it before.
craftinator 7y ago
Damn, Johnny. Remind me not to post unsubstantiated statistics around you.
- Johnny555 7y ago
  Heh, well I was just thinking "Hmm....well I know I could milk a cow, as could at least 2 of my immediate coworkers and we're all geeks [1]... 1:100000 sounds low" so I looked for some data. [1] for evidence, see my preceding post
- gumby 7y ago
  That's the point of commenting on HN.
elteto 7y ago
Thanks for the thorough reasoning! “How many teens can milk a cow in the US?” is going to be my new favorite software interview question /joke
Kaiyou 7y ago
Aren't there cow-milking-machines out there automating the cow milking process? Wouldn't be surprised if there were dairy farms without anyone knowing how to actually milk a cow by hand.

gumby 7y ago

Thanks for the clarification! I originally had typed "1 in 10,000" but that seemed too many kids....and it turns out I was utterly wrong!

vidanay 7y ago
Udderly
dismalpedigree 7y ago
turns out I was UDDERLY wrong! Long day. I’ll be here all week!
- gumby 7y ago
  I suppose you recommend the...veal.

VLM 7y ago

4H has about 7 million members, all somewhat rural/outdoors in outlook and not all farm oriented, as a likely upper bound. Maybe 3 million kids would be expected to milk a cow, so maybe 1 in 20. In some states, nearly a million people per year visit the state fair and most would experience the "milk a cow" booth so essentially all kids above a relatively low socioeconomic level have made a pitiful attempt at milking a cow. Under a very broad and unassuming tent, perhaps a third of kids could be considered able to "manage to milk a cow". My minimal experience in cow milking is its hard to fail completely as long as you're not kicked in the face, but it is the kind of skill where experience and intelligence could pay off. Which brings us back around to an obvious comparison with the general public experience of mass market GUI user interfaces, LOL.

Izkata 7y ago

Could even be higher. I learned to milk a cow on a visit to a farm in the 90s as a kid, but grew up in the suburbs. Probably wasn't very good at it, but I have done it before.

craftinator 7y ago

Damn, Johnny. Remind me not to post unsubstantiated statistics around you.

Johnny555 7y ago
Heh, well I was just thinking "Hmm....well I know I could milk a cow, as could at least 2 of my immediate coworkers and we're all geeks [1]... 1:100000 sounds low" so I looked for some data. [1] for evidence, see my preceding post
gumby 7y ago
That's the point of commenting on HN.

elteto 7y ago

Thanks for the thorough reasoning! “How many teens can milk a cow in the US?” is going to be my new favorite software interview question /joke

Kaiyou 7y ago

Aren't there cow-milking-machines out there automating the cow milking process? Wouldn't be surprised if there were dairy farms without anyone knowing how to actually milk a cow by hand.