byrnema comments on Humans are not automatically strategic - Less Wrong

153 Post author: AnnaSalamon 08 September 2010 07:02AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (266)

Sort By: Leading

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: byrnema 09 September 2010 03:56:58PM *  6 points [-]

My estimate would be far on the other side: I think at least 95% of the population could understand and agree with those heuristics. I pay less attention to what people say they understand, and look at what they do, and am usually impressed by how intelligent people are -- in ways academic tests would not typically fully measure.

.. I think only 5% could compose these heuristics, if asked to. And only half of 1% could know to compose them, without being told to...

Regarding your study, I'm not sure what you could deduce other than that 'sphere' is not in common usage, at least not as the geometric object. (For example, any 4 year old child can distinguish a sphere from other shapes, and then 'sphere' is just a label.)

Perhaps 'sphere of influence' is heard slightly more frequently than sphere as a geometric object. I would expect that the former connotation, if superseding the geometric one, would result in a little confusion and waving of hands, since it is so abstract.