When being stupid is smart
Remember folks, don’t drive yourself too hard… Take some time to sharpen the hammer.
…tastes better than any other kind of porridge.
But if it *does* boil over in the microwave, you have to clean it up.
It’s time to learn why you can’t trust anything on the internet.
Today we’re going to dive into the world of statistics and have a look at Selection Bias. And because we’re talking about the internet, we’re going to demonstrate the principle of selection bias by looking at Blaxploitation films on IMDB.
I’ve listed below the ratings and vote counts of four marvelous examples of the genre.
| Film | IMDB Rating | # of votes |
|---|---|---|
| Black Belt Jones | 6.0 | 805 |
| Hot Potato | 4.3 | 81 |
| Three the Hard Way | 5.8 | 246 |
| Black Samson | 5.7 | 94 |
Looking at these numbers, they don’t look horrible, all things considered. The most popular, Black Belt Jones, weighs the scales at a respectable 6.0 with 805 and five votes. Looks good, huh?
There’s only one problem. Black Belt Jones is *not* a 6.0 film. Trust me, folks (and don’t ask me how I know).
What this 6.0 *really* means is not that the film is a 6.0 film. It means that the dedicated fans of the genre who took the trouble to hunt down this difficult to find, niche film, and who cared enough to vote gave it a six. The people voting on this film are people who are predisposed to like it.
The numbers only get worse from here – 5.8, 5.7, 4.3 – but the really gruesome numbers are the vote counts. Trust me, you don’t want to take the word of those 94 people… they are the wrong 94 people to listen to about this film.
That, in a nutshell, is selection bias. This is why you can’t trust anything on the internet, because *everything* on the internet is heavily subject to selection bias. Well, you can, but…
It means you might wind up watching Black Samson one night.
I even dug some out of my couch the other day!
My chances of being invited to parties have just tanked.
I’ve discovered Legistics.
When you think about the fight for clarity and the disambiguation of language, the legal folks are truly champions of the cause.
I’m off to fight the good fight of avoiding the usage of “comprise” (use “composed of” or “consists of”) and “notwithstanding” (use the commonly used ‘despite’) in my everyday communications.
Despite the high and lofty impression left by a text composed of high-falutin’ words.
While I was not as far behind as I am now behind.
From the Word of the Day that I keep on my whiteboard:
WOTD: affect(process)/effect(state)
The best way to have an effect is to affect someone. (We all need a little affection)
If you verb the ‘e’ word, you are evil. Verbing words is evil.
“Do you wish to effect change?” (this means “bring about an effect“ – correct but evil)
Affecting change means putting it in vinegar so it gets shiny again. (this means ‘alter’)