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George Carlin didn't understand the difference between mean and median. Whether this makes him one of the stupid people is an exercise for the reader.

by cgh 3y ago

philwelch 3y ago
Human intelligence is normally distributed which means the mean and median are the same.
- MertsA 3y ago
  Human intelligence is arguably not even truly ordinal, let alone cardinal. No one who reasonably understands human intelligence believes it's as simple as a normal distribution. IQ is defined as a normal distribution but that doesn't mean the difference between 100 to 110 IQ is comparable to the difference between 140 and 150 IQ. If you boil "human intelligence" down to nothing more than IQ, sure, but in reality there's no such thing as a mean here and median is tenuous as well.
none_to_remain 3y ago
George Carlin was smart enough to understand how to make a joke
- edgyquant 3y ago
  Haha yeah he’s so right that most people are complete idiots. Not like us smart guys am I right brother?
  - xvector 3y ago
    HN definitely has - above average content - more well-thought-out comments - a more technical, intelligent, and successful userbase than the average website. Or are you really trying to imply that it (and it's users) are not much different from, say, Reddit or a Fox News's comment section or TikTok or Facebook?
    - edgyquant 3y ago
      No I wasn’t taking a jab at HN; It’s more a jab at anyone who thinks “most people are stupid” and excludes themselves from that set of people.
    - bryan_w 3y ago
      >more well-thought-out comments Oh really? this one couldn't be bothered for a single complete sentence: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37030073 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37030073 Don't kid yourself, this place is filled with karma farmers. Stop sniffing your own farts
      - Dylan16807 3y ago
        "more" is not "all" or "always" Being better than average at a couple things is extremely common. It's not delusional to point those things out. Most websites are good at something (excluding spam sites).
      - _Algernon_ 3y ago
        Is it really that important to you to "win" the argument, that you had to write this piss poor comment to argue your point?
    - _v7gu 3y ago
      HN is full of people that think they are smart about everything because they have above average knowledge in technology. I can not even start counting the number of uninformed but confident comments I have read here about my non-technology fields.
      - CatWChainsaw 3y ago
        The problem is these people were told that software was going to eat the world, so they anointed themselves as Certified Experts In Everythingology and think their garbage takes are the word of god.
Angostura 3y ago
“Average” can demote mode or median, though mean is the most common usage
gnicholas 3y ago
Yes, it would have been a much better joke if he'd substituted the word "median", which wouldn't have interrupted the flow at all. /s

George Carlin didn't understand the difference between mean and median. Whether this makes him one of the stupid people is an exercise for the reader.

by cgh 3y ago

George Carlin didn't understand the difference between mean and median. Whether this makes him one of the stupid people is an exercise for the reader.

philwelch 3y ago

Human intelligence is normally distributed which means the mean and median are the same.

MertsA 3y ago
Human intelligence is arguably not even truly ordinal, let alone cardinal. No one who reasonably understands human intelligence believes it's as simple as a normal distribution. IQ is defined as a normal distribution but that doesn't mean the difference between 100 to 110 IQ is comparable to the difference between 140 and 150 IQ. If you boil "human intelligence" down to nothing more than IQ, sure, but in reality there's no such thing as a mean here and median is tenuous as well.

none_to_remain 3y ago

George Carlin was smart enough to understand how to make a joke

edgyquant 3y ago
Haha yeah he’s so right that most people are complete idiots. Not like us smart guys am I right brother?
- xvector 3y ago
  HN definitely has - above average content - more well-thought-out comments - a more technical, intelligent, and successful userbase than the average website. Or are you really trying to imply that it (and it's users) are not much different from, say, Reddit or a Fox News's comment section or TikTok or Facebook?
  - edgyquant 3y ago
    No I wasn’t taking a jab at HN; It’s more a jab at anyone who thinks “most people are stupid” and excludes themselves from that set of people.
  - bryan_w 3y ago
    >more well-thought-out comments Oh really? this one couldn't be bothered for a single complete sentence: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37030073 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37030073 Don't kid yourself, this place is filled with karma farmers. Stop sniffing your own farts
    - Dylan16807 3y ago
      "more" is not "all" or "always" Being better than average at a couple things is extremely common. It's not delusional to point those things out. Most websites are good at something (excluding spam sites).
    - _Algernon_ 3y ago
      Is it really that important to you to "win" the argument, that you had to write this piss poor comment to argue your point?
  - _v7gu 3y ago
    HN is full of people that think they are smart about everything because they have above average knowledge in technology. I can not even start counting the number of uninformed but confident comments I have read here about my non-technology fields.
    - CatWChainsaw 3y ago
      The problem is these people were told that software was going to eat the world, so they anointed themselves as Certified Experts In Everythingology and think their garbage takes are the word of god.

Angostura 3y ago

“Average” can demote mode or median, though mean is the most common usage

gnicholas 3y ago

Yes, it would have been a much better joke if he'd substituted the word "median", which wouldn't have interrupted the flow at all. /s