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Your comment about counterfactuals reminds of a saying, or what I would call a more accurate version of a common saying - "Hindsight is 50/50". (Note, that does
by gpsx 5y ago
Your comment about counterfactuals reminds of a saying, or what I would call a more accurate version of a common saying - "Hindsight is 50/50". (Note, that doesn't make hindsight necessarily wrong, just difficult to have confidence in.)
- ismaildonmez 5y ago"Hindsight is 20/20" because perfect eyesight is 20/20: https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/what-does-20-20-vision-mean https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/what-does-20-...
- Hamuko 5y ago20/20 is actually just normal vision, not perfect eyesight.
- irrational 5y agoWhat is perfect vision? I thought 20/20 meant you don’t need glasses or any other aids to see. Would perfect vision being able to see everything in the electromagnetic spectrum? How big would one eyes need to be?
- schoen 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_acuity#Expression https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_acuity#Expression > Some birds of prey, such as hawks, are believed to have an acuity of around 20/2; in this respect, their vision is much better than human eyesight. The scale of how good vision can be keeps going and going indefinitely (presumably until you get into physical limitations to resolution related to wavelengths). While 20/20 is considered normal and not in need of correction, it doesn't mean it's the best vision observed among human beings, or the best that's physically possible (for human beings or other animals).
- thaumasiotes 5y ago> What is perfect vision? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman#Powers,_abilities,_and_weaknesses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman#Powers,_abilities,_an... > I thought 20/20 meant you don’t need glasses or any other aids to see. No, of course not. Try looking at Saturn at night. Then try looking through a telescope. Odds are you'll see it better with the aid.
- throwawayboise 5y agoYes, this just means you (first number) can see at 20 feet what the normal person (second number) can see at 20 feet. I don't know why 20 feet became the standard for comparison.
- gpsx 5y agoYes, that is the point. The original saying is Hindsight is 20/20, implying it is very accurate. This version of the statement contradicts that, implying you can't really say what would have happened if things were different.
- sib 5y agoBut 50/50 would be effectively the same meaning as 20/20. (20/20 means "person being tested sees as well at 20 feet as standard vision at 20 feet.")
- thaumasiotes 5y ago> But 50/50 would be effectively the same meaning as 20/20. This isn't obvious; consider that having 3,000/3,000 vision ("I can't read text all that well when it's half a mile away") says pretty much nothing about how clearly you can see things that are 20 feet away. Nearsightedness and farsightedness are both characterized by "normal vision" at certain distances which becomes markedly worse at certain other distances.
- sib 5y ago20 and 50 feet are both far beyond "nearsighted" range and into "normal distance," without being all that different from one another. 3,000 feet is quite different (for one thing, atmospheric effects start becoming relevant).
- gpsx 5y agoI should have been more clear. 20/20 refers to vision and is used in the traditional form of the expression and is supposed to mean "very good". 50/50 refers to percentages, meaning 50% chance of being correct and 50% chance of being wrong, which would be very bad.
- CrazyPyroLinux 5y agoI took "50/50" to mean like a coin flip odds.
- 5y ago