Minimal Bonsai

Geodude

Well... what if 99 masters agreed on 15 trees, but the last master chose 15 completely different trees to make up the 30 trees. Wouldn't that be 99% agreement and 1% disagreement?

This is from a geologist who used to be a math major.

You're right, Fred. This is going to drive me nuts

__________________
Paul

"Life will be sweet like a rhapsody
When I paint my materpiece"

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Attila

Walter,

If 50 people agree on 15 trees and the other 50 people agree on the other 15 trees, then yes, the agreement is 50%.

But what if 85 people agree on the first 15 trees and the remaining 15 people agree on the other 15 tree? In this case the agreement on the first 15 trees has a higher "weight" (such as in weighted average). So the overall agreement has to be higher than in the first case.

Geodude,
you need to get your math straight: if 100 people result in 100 opinions, thats a 1% agreement and 99% disagreement. Therefore, if 100 people result in 30 opinions, that's a 30% agreement and 70% disagreement,
Sorry,

Math is fun
Attila

Attila

Geodude,
I just read your last post to Walter
I agree with you. That was my point using the weighted average.

Attila

Emperor Fish

Fred, stereotypes can be just as positive as negative and do not necessarily distort at all. For example:

1. Fat people are jolly, Germans are efficient, black people are athletic, Italians are passionate, Americans are hard-working, English are stylish, blondes have more fun, Japanese are team workers.

Read again:

2. Fat people are unfit, Germans are stiff, black people are lazy, Italians are corrupt, Americans are culturally castrated, English have rotten teeth, blondes are dumb, Japanese are indoctrinated robots.

Unfortunately for you and others, there is a growing level of research that suggests that stereotyping is a useful (and usually accurate) tool. Also, that stereotypes evolve as cultures and nationalities change. For example, in the 18th century, Italians considered the English to be the passionate ones!

Now, if I were to say that bonsai is done by old men, that would be stereotyping. However, it does not necessarily mean that I think that ALL bonsai enthusiasts MUST be old men. Stereotyping is about probability. The probability is that a bonsai enthusiast will be older, rather than younger. The probability is that a bonsai enthusiast will be a man. Any arguments here?

Let's take a couple of my positive stereotypes so as not to upset anyone:

1. Germans are efficient. A commonly held stereotype. Does this mean that it is inaccurate? No, quite the opposite. For some time the Germans have had a very high GDP output per worker, significantly higher than the US.

2. Americans are hard working. Another commonly held stereotype. Untrue? No, again the opposite. Americans take significantly less time off work than Europeans.

Damn, those stereotypes can be true after all. (On average, and in the main). They may help us to make sense of our very confusing world and (I suspect) that their origins are rooted in our need to generalise risk to survive.

Just a different take on the subject.

Regards,

Fish.

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Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill.

HEALTH WARNING: Engage brain fully, before typing into keyboard.


"We are the average gamers and we'll kill you badly. There'll be no finesse. no fancy tricks, no inventive attacks, just 2 whole smg clips and a rain of 'nades."

Geodude

How can there be any percentage of agreement if no one agreed, except with him/herself

Aargh... I remember why I switched majors and ended up on something that would require me to pound on rocks with a large hammer.

__________________
Paul

"Life will be sweet like a rhapsody
When I paint my materpiece"

Attila

Geodude,
funny point, however:

If there is only you (1 person) and you happen to agree with yourself(), thats 100% agreement.

If there are 100 people and you are the only one agreing with yourself that is 1% agreement (remember, can't be zero since zero times 100 would be still zero, it has to be greater than zero).

(funny, I also used to be a geologist with math major, now I am a CGA, canadian equivalent of CPA)

Attila

FredL

Fish, I do not disagree with your comments. They are interesting, but have little to do with the point I made to Carmi: He seriously misread my comments, clearly because of the way he filtered and distorted them as they made their way through his "mental model" of Americans. It would be my wish that he might reconsider his stereotype of Americans, especially since it is so necessary in order to make sense of a seriously insane world.

It was not my intention to raise the issue of how useful or even essential stereotypes are. However, since it has now been raised, please let me compliment you on an excellent discussion of that issue.

Fred

Emperor Fish

Interesting. I wonder who is suffering from the distortion from their mental model and who is not.




1. In Israel (where I think Carmi lives) there are 42 violent crimes per 1000 head of population, In the US it is 56 per 1000. True stereotype. (According to Interpol).

2. Prisoner population per 100,000 in the US is the highest in the world. (EIU). True stereotype.




Really? Where does your information come from Fred?

I can't even imagine how one would prove how religious a nation is, (nor how it has any bearing on anything). Religiosity, is, after all, perhaps not such a positive thing when taken to extremes.

However, the US is not the most generous society in the world today - and by a large margin.

Generous to whom? Their own citizens? Nope. That honour goes to Sweden.
Generous to the outside world in aid bugets? Wrong again.

Japan gives some $ 13.5 bn compared with a rather paltry $ 9.9bn from the US. Considering that the US economy is growing, whereas Japan's is contracting and considering that the US economy is actually twice the size (by GDP) of the Japanese economy anyway, means that per capita, the US's generosity is outpaced by many nations - including Canada.

Food for thought. Possibly a distortion in one's mental model.

Regards,

Fish.

__________________
Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill.

HEALTH WARNING: Engage brain fully, before typing into keyboard.


"We are the average gamers and we'll kill you badly. There'll be no finesse. no fancy tricks, no inventive attacks, just 2 whole smg clips and a rain of 'nades."

FredL

Why, thank you Fish. Generous indeed for you to share your thoughts with me. Certainly food for thought.

Your friend, fred