maia comments on Rationality Quotes April 2012 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Oscar_Cunningham 03 April 2012 12:42AM

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

Comments (858)

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

Comment author: maia 13 April 2012 04:18:20PM 0 points [-]

True, a single data point can't give you knowledge of regression effects. In the context of the original problem, Kahneman assumed that you had access to the average score of all the golfers on the first day.

I played a video game for the first time yesterday. My score was 39700, and higher scores are better than lower ones. What's your best guess for my score the next time I play it? (The answer is some number higher than 39700, because I'm no longer an absolute beginner.)

I'm not sure it's true that the answer is higher than 39700, in this case. It depends on if you have knowledge of how people generally improve, and if your score is higher than average for an absolute beginner. Since unknown factors could adjust the score either up or down, I would probably just guess that it will be the same the next day.

Comment author: RobinZ 16 April 2012 05:16:56PM 3 points [-]

The existence of factors which could adjust the score either up or down does not indicate which factors dominate. In this case, you have no information which suggests that 39700 is either above or below the median, and therefore these two cases must be assigned equal probability - canceling out any "regression to the mean" effects you could have predicted. Similar arguments apply to other effects which change the score.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 17 April 2012 05:19:36AM 2 points [-]

In this case, you have no information which suggests that 39700 is either above or below the median, and therefore these two cases must be assigned equal probability

Not quite, you have some background information about the range of scores video games usually employ.

Comment author: RobinZ 17 April 2012 05:54:10AM 1 point [-]

And, I suppose, information about the probability of people mentioning average scores. I concede that either factor could justify arguing that the score should decrease.

Comment author: maia 16 April 2012 06:55:52PM 2 points [-]

So you estimate "regression to the mean" effects as zero, and base your estimate on any other effects you know about and how strong you think they are. That makes sense. Thanks for the correction!