this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
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Microblog Memes

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Goodhart's Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

My state'a standardized test says kids are "at risk" if they aren't in the top 40% of the test. The top 50% could all be traditional "a-b" students. But because they weren't in the top 80% of a-b students they are at risk for failing academically.... It's so asinine and disheartening. The last half of the year is devoted to this idiotic test. Kids could be learning stuff that will enrich themselves... Instead they are learnig how to take a test better.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I was skeptical of these numbers until I did the research. It's even worse than I thought. Did you know that only 20% of students test in the top quintile? Is our children learning?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

I was born extremely smart. I always tested way at the top of the curve... far superior to all my peers.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

One could construct tests where this isn't a given. Create an exam with one really easy question and one really hard question. You'll end up with a huge spike in the center and two tiny tails. The top quintile of correct answers (<=1.6 correct answers) will be vanishingly small.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Do you statistics? This guy clearly statistics.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 4 months ago (4 children)

News at 11: "Half of people are below average!"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Yeah but the average is pretty fucking dumb.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Ashktually half people below the median.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Ackchyually, they never said which average they meant, you just assumed mean.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

True, but those who know what "median" means probably also know what a "quartile" means, so if I used "median" it would've made my comment less of an "obvious, duh!" thing and spoil the unstated point I'm making as well as the joke.

Best leave the mathematical incorrectness there to preserve the feeling of obviousness.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Same thing in a normal distribution, no?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Consider an exam in which there are two questions: one very easy and one very hard. You'll get a supermajority of people who answer the first question and two tiny tails - zero correct, two correct - such that the mode is very high and the outlayer groups are very small.

Then well over half the people are in the median and mean.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yes. In a normal, or Gaussian, distribution, the data is symmetrically distributed around the mean and thus mean (average value), mode (most frequent value) and median (middle value) all fall on the same point, which is the highest point of the curve.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Only all the children in Lake Wobegon are above average. It's balanced out by them all turning into idiots when they become adults.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I can almost see a facebook post along the lines of:
One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to understand how terrible things are, when fully 25% of the population are in the bottom quartile.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

25%!? That's nothing. Half of people are below average. That's twice of what you quoted!

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Tide goes in, tide goes out. Can't explain that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

The gravitational pull of the moon.

But you're right, I cannot explain why gravity even exists.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Oh FSS please don't cede a smart introspection to that billowing buffoon

(nice followup though)

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