2012 Less Wrong Census/Survey

65 Post author: Yvain 03 November 2012 11:00PM

11/26: The survey is now closed. Please do not take the survey. Your results will not be counted.

It's that time of year again.

If you are reading this post, and have not been sent here by some sort of conspiracy trying to throw off the survey results, then you are the target population for the Less Wrong Census/Survey. Please take it. Doesn't matter if you don't post much. Doesn't matter if you're a lurker. Take the survey.

This year's census contains a "main survey" that should take about ten or fifteen minutes, as well as a bunch of "extra credit questions". You may do the extra credit questions if you want. You may skip all the extra credit questions if you want. They're pretty long and not all of them are very interesting. But it is very important that you not put off doing the survey or not do the survey at all because you're intimidated by the extra credit questions.

The survey will probably remain open for a month or so, but once again do not delay taking the survey just for the sake of the extra credit questions.

Please make things easier for my computer and by extension me by reading all the instructions and by answering any text questions in the most obvious possible way. For example, if it asks you "What language do you speak?" please answer "English" instead of "I speak English" or "It's English" or "English since I live in Canada" or "English (US)" or anything else. This will help me sort responses quickly and easily. Likewise, if a question asks for a number, please answer with a number such as "4", rather than "four".

Okay! Enough nitpicky rules! Time to take the...

2012 Less Wrong Census/Survey

Thanks to everyone who suggested questions and ideas for the 2012 Less Wrong Census Survey. I regret I was unable to take all of your suggestions into account, because some of them were contradictory, others were vague, and others would have required me to provide two dozen answers and a thesis paper worth of explanatory text for every question anyone might conceivably misunderstand. But I did make about twenty changes based on the feedback, and *most* of the suggested questions have found their way into the text.

By ancient tradition, if you take the survey you may comment saying you have done so here, and people will upvote you and you will get karma.

Comments (733)

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Comment author: ZoneSeek 28 November 2012 02:01:40AM *  2 points [-]

Did the entire thing weeks ago. Only commenting to log my prediction, I have high confidence that V nz gur bayl Svyvcvab ba YrffJebat.

Comment author: Yvain 27 November 2012 04:01:40AM 8 points [-]

This survey is now closed. I am working on analysis and will have the results in a while. Please do not take it.

Also, you may now begin speculating with 95% confidence intervals on how many people took the survey this year.

Comment author: [deleted] 28 November 2012 01:37:17AM 2 points [-]

Er... From your blog:

X people (Y%) chose the first option, and Z people (W%) the second. 

[numbers redacted]

Comment author: Alejandro1 27 November 2012 04:23:43PM *  1 point [-]

95% confidence interval: orgjrra svir uhaqerq naq gjb gubhfnaq.

50% confidence interval: orgjrra rvtug uhaqerq naq sbhegrra uhaqerq. (Corrected from sbhegrra gubhfnaq, thanks to Vaniver).

Comment author: Vaniver 27 November 2012 04:42:20PM 1 point [-]

I suspect that last gubhfnaq should be a uhaqerq.

Comment author: Alejandro1 27 November 2012 05:03:50PM 1 point [-]

Indeed, thank you.

Comment author: Vaniver 27 November 2012 04:12:22AM *  1 point [-]

Please do not take it.

Is there not a way to shut off the survey?

My speculation: V jbhyq chg yrff guna svir creprag punapr ba yrff guna svir uhaqerq crbcyr gnxvat vg, naq yrff guna svir creprag punapr ba zber guna svir gubhfnaq crbcyr gnxvat vg. (Cbvag rfgvzngr sbe gur rkcrpgrq inyhr: rvtugrra uhaqerq.)

Comment author: [deleted] 27 November 2012 01:30:00PM *  2 points [-]

Thanks for the anchoring. Next time, please use rot-13. ;-)

Comment author: Vaniver 27 November 2012 04:41:08PM 2 points [-]

Ciphered.

Comment author: Yvain 27 November 2012 04:16:32AM 2 points [-]

Shutting off the survey makes it invisible, which means that people can't go back to see how a question was worded or something.

Comment author: Blackened 26 November 2012 10:46:06PM *  9 points [-]

Took the survey + all the extra questions. I just noticed this thread today. In my opinion, it is underadvertised.

Concerning the IQ test, I've seen this one before and I know it's not reliable, because it is not based on a statistic and there's no reason to believe it's reliable in the first place. There are only two culture-fair free online IQ tests: JCTI and CFNSE. I am extremely curious to see the average score for LW.

Here's how to make sense out of your IQ score: http://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/iqtable.aspx

Comment author: [deleted] 27 November 2012 06:26:07PM *  1 point [-]

There are only two culture-fair free online IQ tests: JCTI and CFNSE.

Thanks. I'll try those when I have some time.

Comment author: gwern 26 November 2012 09:21:14PM *  8 points [-]

One cool thing we could do to check the accuracy of the Big Five scores, Conscientiousness specifically, for each user is their item non-response rate, per http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2012/11/hedengrens_dog.html / http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6776620/Papers/The%20dog%20that%20didnt%20bark%2011-8-2012.pdf

If it checks out, that'd give a way to infer Conscientiousness scores of the respondents who didn't report their Big Five.

What would we do with this Conscientiousness data per survey respondent? Dunno. Off the top of my head, we could construct a baseball-like index of 'most under-valued LWers by comparing their IQ and Conscientiousness against their self-reported salary & age' :)

EDIT: The technique seems to completely fail when I try it on the survey: http://lesswrong.com/lw/fp5/2012_survey_results/7xl5

Comment author: ChristianKl 23 November 2012 03:13:59PM 6 points [-]

Taken :)

Comment author: KnaveOfAllTrades 23 November 2012 12:28:06PM 6 points [-]

Taken.

Comment author: [deleted] 22 November 2012 09:58:56AM *  11 points [-]

Taken, de lurked, most everything done because I was bored and curious. I hadn't felt like registering an account for a while because I don't know if I have much to add, but I figured.... you know, fuck it. I ought to have stuff to ask and I can always get another account if this one embarrasses me in the future.

V pna'g ernyyl qrpvqr onfrq ba gur vasbezngvba, ohg V jbhyq or yvxryl cvpx qeht N vs gur cngvrag jnf na rzcyblrr orvat cnvq nalguvat pybfr gb zvavzhz jntr. Vs bayl unys bs gur gjragl urnqnpurf ner zvffrq jbexqnlf gurer fgvyy jbhyq or uhaqerqf bs qbyynef bs ybfg jntrf vs zl ebhtu pnyphyngvbaf jrer frafvoyr. V jnf jnl bss ba gur gerr dhrfgvba. JUL V gubhtug gerrf pbhyq tebj rvtug uhaqerq srrg be zber, onssyrf zr, abj gung V guvax nobhg vg. Vg jnf whfg n pnpurq "snpg" V "yrnearq" va zl puvyqubbq, naq V unir ab vqrn jurer.

The political compass survey just made me think how little I've actually thought about politics. I kept saying "What? I don't know!" so I skipped that one.

One thing concerns me.... How the hell does IQ drop 20 points over four years without my having a concussion or stroke or something? I have at times subjected myself to gnarly sleep deprivation. Maybe my ADD is worse. Maybe the higher score reflects verbal aptitude. (And if so, should that count towards "true iq"?) Can anyone tell me what seems to them the most likely?

Definitely have a lot of research to do

Finally:

Hi everybody! =]

Comment author: gwern 22 November 2012 06:52:30PM 3 points [-]

One thing concerns me.... How the hell does IQ drop 20 points over four years without my having a concussion or stroke or something?

IQ tests aren't all the same and can be a case of apples and oranges. I doubt you're comparing your iqtest.dk score to a previous iqtest.dk score 4 years ago, are you?

Comment author: [deleted] 22 November 2012 07:48:11PM 1 point [-]

Maybe you should rot13 the second paragraph, in case someone accidentally reads it before taking the survey.

Comment author: [deleted] 22 November 2012 09:06:08PM 2 points [-]

Maybe you should rot13 the second paragraph, in case someone accidentally reads it before taking the survey.

Okay, sorry, I guess I forgot

Comment author: Danny_Hintze 21 November 2012 10:53:00PM 10 points [-]

Taken!

Comment author: OrdinaryOwl 19 November 2012 05:36:23AM 9 points [-]

Took the survey, but I didn't have time to finish most of the extra credit questions. I liked how the survey really made me think over a lot of my positions more critically than I otherwise would have. It will be interesting to see if I change much next year.

Comment author: ErikM 18 November 2012 09:13:25PM 8 points [-]

Deeply amused by the section "Alternative Alternative Politics: Okay fine, knock yourself out identifying with as tiny and finely-grained a subcategory as you want" still missing my desired response. :-) (I put Other:Authoritarian as distinct from Totalitarian. My view of these is that the former concerns the power of the ruling body to hypothetically put its fingers in any given pie, while the latter concerns the propensity of the ruling body to have its fingers in a great many pies.)

Comment author: Alejandro1 18 November 2012 04:17:48PM 13 points [-]

Took it.

Doing the Political Compass survey reminded me of what an awful survey it is. Most of the questions cannot be given a truthful "agree or disagree" answer without serious qualification, so the only way to take the survey is to figure out for each question which side will you be interpreted as cheering/booing the most with each answer, and choose which side to cheer/boo.

Comment author: lhopegood 18 November 2012 09:21:58AM 11 points [-]

Lurker, first time poster. Did all the extra credit. Time to research it all :)

Comment author: [deleted] 17 November 2012 11:38:19AM 9 points [-]

Took it.

Comment author: [deleted] 17 November 2012 04:53:58AM 11 points [-]

Took it.

Glad the religion question specified revealed religion. Lao-Zhuang Daoism is objectively true, but not revealed (and only true because it makes no assertions).

Comment author: covaithe 15 November 2012 09:09:53PM 12 points [-]

Done. I, too, took the bait to come out of long-time-lurker status and post after this. :)

Comment author: Asymmetric 15 November 2012 07:40:26PM 11 points [-]

Answered everything, including the extra credit questions, except for the official IQ question and the question concerning income (I'm a student in highschool and I don't have paid work, although I do volunteer).

I also hope that the what the quiz means by "progressive" is also what I mean by "progressive".

Anyhow, excited to see the results!

Comment author: dugancm 14 November 2012 05:26:50AM 11 points [-]

Took the entire survey and all extra credit questions in one go; minus ACT, SAT2400 and Respectable(tm) IQ scores since I don't have them, and </=140 character LW description because I was starting to get tired after the 40 min. IQ test.

So much fun! I'm very curious to see the results.

Comment author: TonyDuMont 13 November 2012 11:28:09PM 11 points [-]

Survey:Completed. Extra credit as well!

Comment author: CharlieDavies 13 November 2012 05:17:59PM 10 points [-]

Re: cryonics, assume the following:

1) Any Agent that reconstructs my mind from a plasticized or frozen brain is very smart and well-informed. It is working its way through a whole warehouse of similar 21st century brains, and can reconstruct vast swathes of my mind with generic any-human or any-human-who-grew-up-watching-Sesame-Street boilerplate. This gets boring after the first few hundred.

2) I'm of no practical use in the post-Singularity world, with my obsolete work skills and mismatching social and moral behavior.

3) Frozen-brain reconstruction starts late enough that nobody remains alive who knows and loves me personally.

In this scenario, I expect the compressed mind reconstructions are just stored in an archive for research/entertainment purposes. Why bother ever running the reconstruction long enough for it to subjectively "wake up"?

I think that we need to let go of the idea of immortality as a continuation of our present self. The most we can hope for is that far in the future, some hyper-intelligent Agent has our memories. And probably the memories of thousands of other dead people as well.

Cryonics is most like writing a really detailed autobiography for future people to read after we're dead. This still seems worthwhile to me, but it's not the same thing as there being a living Charlie Davies in the 23rd century.

I took the survey.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 14 November 2012 04:38:08AM 4 points [-]

Why bother ever running the reconstruction long enough for it to subjectively "wake up"?

Because it's the right thing to do?

Comment author: CharlieDavies 14 November 2012 09:37:53PM 3 points [-]

Good point. This website is dedicated to such an outcome right?

If the future Agent fully revives dead people purely for selfish reasons, that might be worse than no revival at all.

Reconstructed 21st-C minds might be most valuable as stock non-player-characters in RPG games. Their afterlife might consist of endlessly driving a cab in a 3-block circle, occasionally interrupted when a PC hops in and says "follow that car!", death in a fiery crash, followed by amnesia and reset.

Is anyone working on legal rights for sentient software?

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 15 November 2012 02:26:56AM 1 point [-]

Good point. This website is dedicated to such an outcome right?

One would think so. Unfortunately the majority of people here have a hard time even taking the concept of "the right thing to do" seriously.

Comment author: Epiphany 13 November 2012 02:13:04AM *  11 points [-]

I took it and did all the extra credit questions except one because it would not be accurate for me.

Comment author: dejb 12 November 2012 01:04:08PM 11 points [-]

I took it and did most of the bonus questions.

Comment author: thomblake 12 November 2012 06:28:25PM 3 points [-]

results soon?

Comment author: JulianMorrison 12 November 2012 02:33:35PM 2 points [-]

On "dust specks", I think there are trivial dis-utilities whose infinite sum has an asymptote that is finite and small, and thus I disagree with the LW consensus on this.

Comment author: Michael_Sullivan 12 November 2012 03:32:51AM 11 points [-]

Taken.

As last year, I would prefer different wording on the P(religion) question. "More or less" is so vague as to allow for a lot of very different answers depending on how I interpret it, and I didn't even properly consider the "revealed" distinction noted in a comment here.

I appreciate the update on the singularity estimate for those of us whose P(singularity) is between epsilon and 50+epsilon.

I still wonder if we can tease out the differences between current logistical/political problems and the actual effectiveness of the science on the cryonics question. Once again I gave an extremely low probability even though I would give a reasonable (10-30%) probability that the science itself is sound or will be at some point in the near future. Or perhaps it is your intention to let a segment of the population here fall into a conjunctiveness trap?

On the CFAR migraine treatment question I thought as follows:

Gur pbeerpg nafjre jbhyq qrcraq ba jung lbh xarj nobhg gur crefba. Sbe nalbar noyr gb cebprff naq haqrefgnaq gur hgvyvgl genqrbssf naq jub jnf fhssvpvragyl ybj vapbzr gung O pbhyq pbaprvinoyl or n orggre pubvfr, V jbhyq tvir gurz obgu bcgvba N naq O naq rkcynva gur genqrbss pnershyyl, be nggrzcg gb nfpregnva gurve $inyhr bs 1 srjre zvtenvar ol bgure dhrfgvbaf naq gura znxr gur pbeerpg erpbzzraqngvba onfrq ba gung.

Gjb guvatf ner dhvgr pyrne gb zr:

1: pubbfvat gur zbfg rssvpvrag gerngzrag va grezf bs zvtenvarf erzbirq cre qbyyne, vf irel pyrneyl gur jebat nafjre.

2: sbe >90% bs crbcyr va gur evpu jbeyq, gur pbeerpg nafjre fubhyq or N.

Comment author: Alex_Altair 11 November 2012 09:47:31PM 13 points [-]

Took it.

I wish there were more questions! Non-jokingly, I wish there were more questions about FAI, MWI, and other complex content things. I want more people to pick my brain and tell me if I'm consistent.

Comment author: Steven_Bukal 10 November 2012 07:02:40PM 16 points [-]

Took the whole survey. My preferred political label of (Radical) Centrist survived all explicit radio buttons.

Comment author: shinoteki 10 November 2012 03:49:20PM 15 points [-]

I took it.

Comment author: primemountain 10 November 2012 09:43:45AM *  13 points [-]

Took the survey. All of it. :) EDIT:huh, completely missed the point in the doctor Q. I figured it was not my place to tell him what to do, but offer him all the possibilities and let the patient choose( he will be paying for it). Otherwise you are just guessing what the patient wants. EDIT2: rot13: Abj gung v qvq fbzr pnyphyngvbaf v guvax v xabj n ybg bs crbcyr gung jbhyq ybir gb rnea 4$ na ubhe whfg univat n zvtenvar.8 gb 10 u n qnl, 5 qnlf n jrrx, pbzrf bhg gb 800$ n zbagu.(juvfgyr). jbj. Npghnyyl v jbhyq abg zvaq fhpu n wbo. Fb v thrff vg pbzrf qbja gb jurer lbh ner yvivat. Jurer v yvir, zbfg snzvyl'f bs 4 trg ba jvgu yrff zbarl. Nobhg 550$ n zbagu.

Comment author: BT_Uytya 09 November 2012 09:26:36PM 19 points [-]

I took the survey.

Guys, you are seriously need to start using metric system or at least include the necessary number in the meters. Going to Google twice in order to calculate the relevant numbers was... frustrating.

(By the way, I have never donated to any charity before, but I sworn in a grand manner that it will be in the list of the first five things I will do with my PayPal account when I get one)

Comment author: thomblake 09 November 2012 09:58:36PM 14 points [-]

I took a survey.

Comment author: [deleted] 09 November 2012 05:48:13PM 14 points [-]

Survey taken.

Comment author: NoahTheDuke 09 November 2012 04:54:01PM 14 points [-]

I took the survey, and did all of the extra credit work too!

That IQ test seemed really silly, but I've never taken one before, so who knows?

Comment author: Cthulhoo 09 November 2012 04:26:24PM 14 points [-]

Done, except for the unreasonably long extra credit section, mostly due to not having time to take the tests now and not knowing when I could possibly manage to do it in the future.

Good work Yvain, it's been a pleasure to take the survey, and it will be a plesure to see the results.

Comment author: moshez 09 November 2012 04:20:36PM 10 points [-]

I took it. No SAT scores or classical IQ scores, didn't take Myer-Briggs (because it's stupid) or Autism (because freakin' hell, amateur psychology diagnosis on the 'net).

Comment author: drnickbone 09 November 2012 01:33:47PM *  15 points [-]

Just taken - my first LessWrong census!

Interesting questions, though as a committed Bayesian I was very embarrassed that I couldn't even remember which century he was born! Guessed at about 20% chance of my estimate being within 20 years of the true date which it wasn't. So I was wrong, but at least right that I was wrong. I suppose that is "less wrong"?

Comment author: Gastogh 09 November 2012 03:14:50PM 10 points [-]

Kudos to the one who formulated the questions. I found them unusually easy to answer, at large.

I'm only puzzled at the lack of an umbrella option for the humanities in the question on profession. Were they meant to fall into the category of social sciences?

Comment author: duwease 09 November 2012 04:43:02PM 7 points [-]

The doctor recommending medicine one threw me. Why not offer more than one, explain that one gives the best bang for the buck, but also let them decide whether the $350 for 30 headaches is still worth it despite being an increased cost per headache prevented. I can easily imagine a rational scenario where 20 less headaches is still worth increased payment per headache prevented, especially if it costs you wages at your theoretical low-income job..

Comment author: Vaniver 09 November 2012 09:38:30PM *  3 points [-]

I suspect there are two points to that exercise, and am obscuring my guess with rot13:

Gur svefg vf gb znxr fher gung lbh ernyvmr gur qbzvangrq nygreangvir vf qbzvangrq, naq gura frpbaq vf gb grfg vs lbh npghnyyl eha gur ahzoref, be vs lbh ersyrpgviryl fnl "cbbe=varkcrafvir bcgvba." Jura V ena gurz (ivrjvat gur varkcrafvir gerngzrag nf gur onfryvar, abg ab gerngzrag, juvpu znxrf gur rkcrafvir gerngzrag yrff nggenpgvir) vg pnzr bhg gb sbhe qbyynef gb nibvq na ubhe bs univat n zvtenvar. Gung frrzf yvxr n irel purnc jnl gb ohl unccvarff sbe nalbar jub yvirf va gur qrirybcrq jbeyq, rira ba n ybj vapbzr. Juvyr vg'f fvk gvzrf nf rkcrafvir cre ubhe nf gur purnc bcgvba, vg fgvyy vf purnc rabhtu gb fgebatyl erpbzzraq. (Pbafvqre gur erirefny: jbhyq lbh gnxr ba n zvtenvar gb rnea sbhe qbyynef na ubhe?)

Comment author: thomblake 09 November 2012 09:51:34PM 4 points [-]

(Pbafvqre gur erirefny: jbhyq lbh gnxr ba n zvtenvar gb rnea sbhe qbyynef na ubhe?)

That sounds like my first job!

Comment author: [deleted] 09 November 2012 11:11:32AM *  14 points [-]

I wonder if I am the only one who thought that this "Get a random three digit number (000-999) from goo.gl/x45un" question was in fact a hidden rationality test, sort of "are you irrational enough to follow a shortened url that can lead everywhere, including a potentially dangerous or at least annoying website" and skipped it.

Comment author: Douglas_Reay 22 November 2012 04:28:27AM 3 points [-]

No, you're not. So I googled the URL, and was linked to your comment. :-)

I also considered that it might be a compliance test, going actually to a site that appears to produce a random number but infact gives everyone the same number, as a check for whether the person followed the instructions or whether they just made a number up, to save time following the link.

Comment author: ChristianKl 14 November 2012 11:07:39PM 6 points [-]

By the same rationalisation it could also be a test for paranoia.

If you trust lesswrong to avoid referering you to a dangerous website than you should also trust Yvain to do the same.

Comment author: Unnamed 10 November 2012 03:04:00AM 3 points [-]

The link goes to random.org and is exactly what it says. If you generated your own random number from the same range that is fine.

Comment author: Cthulhoo 09 November 2012 04:33:56PM 8 points [-]

My prior for Yvain to be a good guy was high enough for me to take the risk (though I had briefly the same thought of yours).

Comment author: Larks 09 November 2012 12:11:32PM 3 points [-]

I generated my own random integer and then worried that the intent had been for us to select from a biased sample.

Comment author: Kawoomba 09 November 2012 04:47:56PM 1 point [-]

Heh, paranoia. I generated the random number using different means.

Comment author: solaire 09 November 2012 06:05:51AM 14 points [-]

Been a lurker for a relatively short time, took the survey.

I had some concerns over the extra credit questions and one thing in particular that prompted me to respond. I agree it seems there was meant to be no right answer to a couple of the questions, and the babies in the hospital was at least a clear statistical problem. I also had an admittedly whimsical objection to the lack of details on one question, thanks to the level of specificity seen in riddles, puzzles, and so on here, and maybe due to a programmer background thinking of pointers and assignments. The first CFAR question should have specified to start something like there are three people in a room. Then it's clear there's not a person looking at himself in a mirror, or more than three people with some having the same first name, or creatively a statue or painting, with one human looking at the artwork which is facing another human. (Would be a good one with Lisa implying the Mona Lisa, but connotations of names shouldn't be relevant)

However, what I was really curious about was the redwood question. Surprisingly, I knew the answer pretty much exactly and later noticed the complaints about using feet as a unit which was rather strange. I remembered this exact question was from a recent study in a psychology journal on cognitive biases.

It seems likely the question was written with knowledge of the study in mind, to test for anchoring bias, considering many other things could have been chosen other than the height of redwood trees in feet. I really hope the intention was not to take these results to say, "LW readers conclusively have less anchoring bias than people in the psychology study." As the maximum number that could possibly be generated by the RNG (999) iirc is lower than an anchoring number given in the study (1000), presumably few survey participants if any would answer the tree height is greater than that. Due to the RNG anchor likely being much closer to the true value anchoring bias will be less than in the psychology study by nature of how the question was presented.

Comment author: therufs 09 November 2012 04:33:08AM 13 points [-]

DONE, sweet fancy moses. No flash on tablet=no IQ test for me :/

Comment author: hankx7787 09 November 2012 02:28:41AM 9 points [-]

done!

Comment author: aspera 09 November 2012 12:02:21AM 13 points [-]

Nice job writing the survey - fun times. I kind of want to hand it out to my non-LW friends, but I don't want to corrupt the data.

Comment author: AnthonyC 08 November 2012 09:49:14PM 17 points [-]

Completed every last question.

Also, I've noticed that on different IQ tests (real ones, not fake ones) my scores vary by as much as 40 points. Hmm.

Comment author: wesley 08 November 2012 10:53:10PM 13 points [-]

Did it. Was enjoyable for me!

Comment author: Bruno_Coelho 08 November 2012 02:23:45PM 16 points [-]

Done. I hope this data help LW/CFAR.

Comment author: fezziwig 08 November 2012 01:05:29PM 17 points [-]

Done. Finished most of it, stalled for days waiting for time to do the extra credit, noticed I was doing that, submitted. I'll look forward to the results.

Comment author: kvasarnomad 08 November 2012 12:57:51PM 17 points [-]

Took it, lurker who just broke ones position on not posting on the net. Had to skip last questions and tests thou, going to try them next..

Comment author: scav 08 November 2012 12:00:01PM 13 points [-]

Took the survey, did most of the extra questions. IQ 122 apparently. I'm sceptical of what that actually means but it sounds quite good so next time someone asks me, that's what I'll say :)

Didn't do Myers-Briggs because I'm pretty sure it's bullshit.

Not too surprised to find that my political views are measurably left libertarian. Wasn't happy with a lot of the political policy questions though - most of them were phrased in a way that I wanted to answer "it depends" or "yes, BUT...", or even "mu".

Comment author: Cakoluchiam 08 November 2012 08:18:58PM 3 points [-]

That Myers-Briggs test was a lot less thorough than what I remember from a lot of the ones I took online back in TheSpark era. Though, part of me is kind of glad that each of the extra credit questions could be completed in under an hour.

Comment author: [deleted] 08 November 2012 08:58:35PM 1 point [-]

I've seen this a lot now; what does "mu" mean in this context; where does the term come from?

Comment author: VincentYu 08 November 2012 09:22:12PM *  4 points [-]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(negative)

It was popularized by Hofstadter's GEB.

Comment author: [deleted] 08 November 2012 05:31:12PM 1 point [-]

I interpreted “Strongly agree” as plain ‘yes’, and “Agree” as ‘it depends, but more often than not, yes’ or ‘yes, but...’.

Comment author: Reuven 08 November 2012 10:13:09AM 18 points [-]

Done and done. And this makes for my very first comment. The first of many.

Comment author: Desrtopa 08 November 2012 02:35:24PM *  6 points [-]

Sbe PSNE dhrfgvba sbhe, V'z fgnyyrq orpnhfr vg frrzf gb zr gung zl nafjre fubhyq qrcraq ba ubj ybj vapbzr gur cngvrag vf. Vs gur cngvrag vf rzcyblrq ng nyy, gur qvssrerapr bs fvkgl ubhef bs urnqnpurf vf cebonoyl jbegu zber guna n qvssrerapr bs gjb uhaqerq svsgl qbyynef. Vs gur cngvrag vf harzcyblrq, vg znl abg or.

Comment author: [deleted] 08 November 2012 05:26:31PM 3 points [-]

You should rot13 that.

Comment author: Desrtopa 08 November 2012 06:13:23PM 2 points [-]

Good point, edited.

Comment author: Cakoluchiam 08 November 2012 08:24:47PM *  1 point [-]

I spent a lot of time analyzing that question and came up with the following solution, which, granted, assumes at least three things, and "only a fool would attempt a plot that was as complicated as possible", but...

Vs jr nffhzr gung svsgl creprag bs gur urnqnpurf qverpgyl nssrpg jbexvat ubhef, gura gur pbfg bs nal bs gur guerr qehtf vf fvtavsvpnagyl ybjre guna gur bccbeghavgl pbfg bs ybfvat gubfr jbex-ubhef ng zvavzhz jntr. Qeht N, juvyr abg gur zbfg pbfg-rssrpgvir jura pbzcnerq qverpgyl gb Qeht O (be rira P), unf gur terngrfg rssrpg naq fgvyy pbfgf yrff guna gur zna jbhyq znxr va jbex-ubhef tnvarq. Gur pbzcnengvir pbfg bs guvegl-gjb qbyynef naq svsgl pragf sbe gur zber rssrpgvir qeht vf n yvggyr zber guna bar qbyyne cre yrvfher ubhe tnvarq, naq rira fbzrbar fgenccrq sbe pnfu jbhyq nyzbfg pregnvayl cnl n qbyyne gb erzbir na ubhe bs rkpehpvngvat cnva (V'z nffhzvat gur pheerag znexrg sbe cnva cvyyf vf qevira zber ol uvtu fhccyl guna ybj qrznaq).

Edit: xrrc va zvaq gung gur dhrfgvba fnvq "n ybj vapbzr", abg "harzcyblrq".

Comment author: Desrtopa 08 November 2012 10:31:50PM 2 points [-]

Svsgl creprag punapr bs urnqnpurf qverpgyl nssrpgvat jbexvat ubhef frrzf vzcebonoyr tbvat ba gur fbeg bs nffhzcgvbaf V gnxr sebz gur cerzvfrf bs gur dhrfgvba. Vs jr nffhzr n sbegl ubhe jbex jrrx, gura nffhzvat gur urnqnpurf qba'g vagreehcg fyrrc, gung tvirf pybfre gb n bar va guerr punapr.

Gernqvat vagb ernyzf bs "cebonoyl bireguvaxvat guvatf," V fhccbfrq gung vs gur crefba jrer na hafxvyyrq, ybj jntr, shyy gvzr jbexre, naq gur urnqnpurf jrer frevbhfyl phggvat vagb gur gvzr gurl pbhyq fcraq jbexvat, naq gur zrqvpngvba abg pbirerq ol vafhenapr, gurve rzcyblre jbhyq cebonoyl whfg sver gurz. Bhe pheerag wbo znexrg urnivyl snibef rzcyblref, naq rzcyblref bs hafxvyyrq jbexref pna nssbeq gb or rkgerzryl cvpxl. Fb tvira gur nffhzcgvba gung gurl fgvyy unq n wbo ng nyy, V gubhtug vg jnf yvxryl gung vg jnf n cneg gvzr bar jurer gurve urnqnpur gvzr qvqa'g bireync zhpu jvgu jbexvat gvzr, naq/be gurl znantrq gb cbjre guebhtu gur urnqnpurf naq jbex naljnl gb nibvq trggvat sverq, fb vg jnfa'g ceriragvat gurz sebz jbexvat.

Comment author: hylleddin 08 November 2012 06:59:35AM 20 points [-]

Took the survey. Delurking for the first time. I'm planning on posting to the welcome thread in a few days, when I'm less busy. Did most of the test except the IQ test, since I didn't have another forty minutes to spare.

I appreciate the expansiveness of the sex and gender options. It's nice to see some recognition of the complexities.

I was surprised at my intensely introverted results, other big five tests usually put me between average and moderately introverted. Nothing else noticably unusual, though.

Comment author: Cakoluchiam 08 November 2012 04:10:06AM 18 points [-]

Survey taken: check! Account finally registered: check, please!

I was off by 50%ish on the two estimation questions, but I forgive myself Bayes' age since I really know nothing about history in "space-of-time" context. The redwood tree on the other hand was a geometry problem for me, more than anything else, and I misjudged its incline by half a degree.

Comment author: Cakoluchiam 08 November 2012 07:42:05AM 3 points [-]

Also, just spent an hour I should have spent sleeping upvoting all the comments that explicitly mentioned taking the test, and a few that were just insightful.

(yelling) Curse you squid-god of time, for reawakening the sleeping demon that is my love for census, long forgotten in the archives of naturalization! (/yelling)

Comment author: Divide 08 November 2012 07:34:59AM 8 points [-]

I've been a bit confused by the relationships question. I'm currently seeing three people romantically on a semi-regular basis, so I put in 3, but I wouldn't say any of those relations qualify as "relationships", so I selected 'single'. I hope that's the preferred method.

Comment author: Jost 07 November 2012 10:29:12PM 18 points [-]

I took most of the survey, except for the (aptly named) “Unreasonably Long and Complicated Questions” at the end.

Comment author: FrankGarza 07 November 2012 07:37:09PM 21 points [-]

I did everything except the IQ test. I took that test before and retook it until I figured out how to solve all the problems. I could not recall what I got on it the first time. Strangely in the survey I said staying anonymous is important to me and then I created an account with my real name.

Comment author: Spectral_Dragon 07 November 2012 07:14:22PM 20 points [-]

All done! Surprised since my IQ's apparently dropped roughly 20 points in the last 2 years. But everyone knows the internet is reliable when it comes to that. Eagerly awaiting results, when can we expect them to appear on the site?

Also, please do not upvote this comment, as I want my karma to reflect when I've thought something insightful, and only taking a survey to recieve it does not properly reflect this. "By ancient tradition" makes that the most cultish thing I've ever heard lesswrong.

... Maybe topped by "we're a cult" or something of that effect, but still.

Comment author: [deleted] 08 November 2012 09:01:05PM 2 points [-]

Your survey data is valuable to the Less Wrong community, upvoting your comment is how you get credited for it.

Comment author: [deleted] 08 November 2012 05:08:36PM 3 points [-]

Eagerly awaiting results, when can we expect them to appear on the site?

Last time it took about a month, IIRC.

Also, please do not upvote this comment, as I want my karma to reflect when I've thought something insightful, and only taking a survey to recieve it does not properly reflect this.

But that is something insightful. So now I have a paradox here... Should I upvote or not?

Comment author: Spectral_Dragon 08 November 2012 06:21:32PM 1 point [-]

Last time it took about a month, IIRC.

Thanks for the time frame!

Simple solution: Aim to move the karma score to what you think it should be, based on the actual wisdom of the comment. I have no preference on the upvote - I'm just thrilled I've achieved a new high score on a comment, considering my second record was set by the comment "I'm bad at math" in more eloquent terms.

Comment author: [deleted] 09 November 2012 01:21:00PM *  2 points [-]

Yes, there's a tendency for witty remarks (and quotations) to skyrocket to karma scores that actual novel insights seldom achieve.

Comment author: DaFranker 07 November 2012 07:23:36PM 10 points [-]

Also, please do not upvote this comment, as I want my karma to reflect when I've thought something insightful, and only taking a survey to recieve it does not properly reflect this. "By ancient tradition" makes that the most cultish thing I've ever heard lesswrong.

Upvoted specifically for the second paragraph, specifically because it was insightful.

Comment author: zero_0nee 07 November 2012 06:36:52PM 20 points [-]

Done with the entire thing. :)

Comment author: Friendly-HI 07 November 2012 01:17:59PM *  18 points [-]

Took it minus the three personality tests and minus the very last few questions. I still know my IQ from a former test and I had my NEO-FFI results already stored somewhere but couldn't find the right hard-drive quick enough. Autism... don't think I would score very high on that but my fallible intuition says lesswrong seems like quite the paradise for autistic personalities.

Sincerely curious about the results :)

I also guessed the size of the biggest redwood tree incredibly well :) By converting my guesstimate in meters to some form of archaic measurement only used by cavemen and Americans. What's up with that?

Comment author: RobinZ 07 November 2012 04:34:30PM 5 points [-]

I also guessed the size of the biggest redwood tree incredibly well :) By converting my guesstimate in meters to some form of archaic measurement only used by cavemen and Americans. What's up with that?

Only officially used by Liberia, Burma/Myanmar, and the United States - quite a lot of people in the UK defy the mandate of their governments and continue using traditional measurements.

Comment author: Peterdjones 07 November 2012 05:27:11PM *  5 points [-]

Despite what the Daily Mail would have you think, "The Units of Measurement Regulations 1995 require that all measuring devices used in trade or retail be capable of displaying measurements for most products in both metric and imperial quantities" (WP, emph. added).

Moreover, "many imperial units [are] still legally mandated for some application; draught beer must be sold in pints,[31] road-sign distances must be in yards and miles,[32] length and width (but not weight) restrictions must be in feet and inches on road signs (although an equivalent in metres may be shown as well),[32] and road speed limits must be in miles per hour,[32"

Comment author: DaFranker 07 November 2012 04:46:53PM 3 points [-]

AFAIK, very few scientists anywhere in the world (except USA) use "traditional" measurements, so I was also surprised that non-SI units would be used in a LessWrong survey.

It's not a big issue for me, but the additional complications in converting units (and the non-standard cross-unit conversions within the imperial system too) do distract from more important matters IMO. That's kind of the whole point of the SI, apart from striving for more accuracy in the measurements.

Comment author: Vaniver 09 November 2012 09:51:34PM *  3 points [-]

AFAIK, very few scientists anywhere in the world (except USA) use "traditional" measurements, so I was also surprised that non-SI units would be used in a LessWrong survey.

My experience is that most scientists (in the US) use SI units in the lab, and the imperial units everywhere else. Water boils at 100 degrees, and it's 98 degrees outside.

Comment author: wedrifid 10 November 2012 01:44:02AM 3 points [-]

My experience is that most scientists use SI units in the lab, and the imperial units everywhere else. Water boils at 100 degrees, and it's 98 degrees outside.

This reads as if it is intended to be a contradiction of the grandparent. This is odd because it actually strengthens the grandparent's claim. US scientists were already outright excluded from the claim so your additional testimony just enhances (!USA) to (!USA || USA && LAB). Pardon me if I misread the intended message (the other interpretation is that the comment is a misleading non-sequitur.)

Following the 'sharing anecdotal impression' line my experience is that scientists use SI units in the lab as well as elsewhere. Exceptions, with respect to "feet" in particular are for approximations of (human) height or when talking to people over 50 years old. Fahrenheit is never used but can be parsed and translated from foreign sources in much the same way that Cuneiform can be translated if absolutely necessary.

Comment author: Vaniver 10 November 2012 01:48:33AM 2 points [-]

I was adding anecdotal evidence about US scientists, which I somehow missed were excluded from the claim. Thanks for pointing out the oddity.

Comment author: wedrifid 10 November 2012 02:07:54AM *  2 points [-]

I was adding anecdotal evidence about US scientists, which I somehow missed were excluded from the claim. Thanks for pointing out the oddity.

nod. It was easy to miss, I only saw it on second read myself. Before that I had only typed my own Australian anecdotal perspective.

Comment author: pleeppleep 07 November 2012 04:50:22AM *  23 points [-]

DONE!DONE!DONE!DONE!DONE!DONE!DONE!DONE!DONE!DONE!

Only cost me an hour of my time!

(Minus, of course, the two additional hours spent staring at a corner, crying and lamenting my various emotional insecurities brought up by the IQ and personality tests)

Comment author: EStokes 07 November 2012 05:51:47AM *  14 points [-]

If the right thing to do is the consequentialist thing to do, and an outcome turns out bad, but it was still the best choice with the information one knew at the time, would that be consequentialism or virtue ethics?

edit: Ok, I completed the survey and just guessed. Would still like to know the answer though.

Comment author: RobinZ 07 November 2012 06:45:34AM 5 points [-]

It sounds like rule consequentialism to me - the ultimate arbiter of good and evil remains the consequences, but instead of determining rectitude by calculating the consequences of the action, you calculate the consequences of the decision method.

Basically, to use a blackjack metaphor, the rule consequentialist says someone who doubles-down when they have two tens showing is playing badly, even if they get an ace ... unless they've been counting cards and already know that the next card is an ace.

Comment author: EStokes 07 November 2012 07:18:15AM *  1 point [-]

Thank you!

Comment author: MaoShan 07 November 2012 03:24:41AM 18 points [-]

I answered everything but the personality test links, I will take them when I have more free time.

Comment author: MaoShan 11 November 2012 03:40:03AM 1 point [-]

Here were my scores from the various linked tests, which I have now taken:

Political Compass Economic Left/Right: -3.12 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.10

O: 76 C: 74 E: 4 A: 4 N: 37 (My wife scored me as well, and she came up with nearly identical numbers for me!)

I: 89% N: 38% T: 38% J: 67% (I remember taking this test before, and got "INTJ" then, too.)

AQ: 38 (I think I took the same test linked from LW in the past, and had the same score back then.)

IQ: 118 (I vaguely have a memory of taking a different form of the test in my teens, with a similar outcome.)

Comment author: MaoShan 12 November 2012 02:26:09AM 2 points [-]

On a side-note, I don't know why there's so much hating going on towards the Meyers-Briggs test; if it came up with stuff like "You are an INTJ. This means that you have twelve fingers, enjoy ice-skating, and have a raw vegetable fetish." I would be inclined to call it "bullshit", but not for providing some vague generalizations which basically just summarize the answers that I just provided. That's not worth throwing chairs over, in my opinion.

Comment author: wedrifid 12 November 2012 02:40:15AM *  4 points [-]

On a side-note, I don't know why there's so much hating going on towards the Meyers-Briggs test; if it came up with stuff like "You are an INTJ. This means that you have twelve fingers, enjoy ice-skating, and have a raw vegetable fetish." I would be inclined to call it "bullshit", but not for providing some vague generalizations which basically just summarize the answers that I just provided. That's not worth throwing chairs over, in my opinion.

I like the balanced perspective. I've usually found dismissals of MBTI to be based on the wrong criteria. It is nearly absurd to expect that a test based on that much data to be worthless. Instead the "skeptical" expectation should be "MBTI isn't likely to carve reality efficiently at its joints and the same data could be used to break up individuals according to a different combinations groupings which leads to more effective predictions and advice". It does seem like "types" should be chosen after the systematic collection of data.

Comment author: [deleted] 12 November 2012 06:09:42PM 1 point [-]

That's one reason why I prefer the Big Five. (The other is that I understand what the Big Five traits are supposed to mean much better than what the MBTI traits are supposed to mean, but that might be just because I've read more about the former.)

Comment author: wedrifid 13 November 2012 08:58:05AM *  1 point [-]

That's one reason why I prefer the Big Five. (The other is that I understand what the Big Five traits are supposed to mean much better than what the MBTI traits are supposed to mean, but that might be just because I've read more about the former.)

I've had more exposure to the MBTI but would suggest the Big Five as a more useful predictive tool for the same reason. I've actually never tried a B5 test. Maybe worth a look!

Comment author: AspiringRationalist 07 November 2012 01:53:07AM 22 points [-]

took it

Comment author: wanderingsoul 07 November 2012 12:58:02AM 22 points [-]

Took the survey, plus the IQ test out of curiosity, I'd never had my IQ tested before.

Along similar reasoning, do we know how well the iqtest.dk test correlates with non-internet tests of IQ? Getting a number is cool, knowing it was generated by a process fundamentally different than rand(100,160) would be even better

Comment author: Cakoluchiam 08 November 2012 06:10:21AM 4 points [-]

I strongly suspect that a lot of the members of LessWrong have had a non-internet IQ test and will have entered their scores on the census. Those who also took the extra credit internet test and entered their scores to that as well could serve as a sample group for us to make just such an analysis.

Granted, we are likely a biased sample of the population (I suspect a median of somewhere around 125 for both tests), but data is data.

Comment author: [deleted] 08 November 2012 05:24:54PM 1 point [-]

I assumed that iqtest.dk would count as “respectable” rather than as “amateur” so I included its score in both questions. If you do such a calibration, you should ignore my entry.

Comment author: jeremysalwen 08 November 2012 06:26:08AM *  4 points [-]

From what I could read on the iqtest page, it seemed that they didn't do any correction for self-selection bias, but rather calculated scores as if they had a representative sample. Based on this I would guess that the internet IQ test will underestimate your score (p=0.7)

Comment author: Cakoluchiam 08 November 2012 07:51:59AM 2 points [-]

Unless there are significant numbers of people, myself for example, who take the test multiple times with varied random algorithms just to see how it affects the outcome. I'd only put a (p=0.55) at the test underestimating your score, conditional that it doesn't correct for self-selection bias.

Though, given that the lowest score appears to be "less than 79", rather than an exact number, they may simply drop any scores under 79 from their pool, or at the very least weight them differently. Has anybody identified a similar maximum score which would support this hypothesis of discarding outliers?

Comment author: jeremysalwen 07 December 2012 11:06:08PM 1 point [-]

Analysis of the survey results seems to indicate that I was correct: http://lesswrong.com/lw/fp5/2012_survey_results/

Comment author: Nornagest 08 November 2012 06:23:34AM *  2 points [-]

A lot of people in this thread have reported institutionally tested IQ scores much higher than those given by the extra-credit Internet test. (My own score on the former is two and a half standard deviations higher than on the latter, though I took the former many years ago.) I suspect that iqtest.dk's either normed very low (unusually for an Internet IQ test) or is suffering from other problems.

The first possibility that comes to mind is that some people are taking it several times (one person elsewhere in the thread reported scores in the 100 range, then 120, then 140 over three trials), and that its scoring system is taking that into account improperly.

Comment author: Cakoluchiam 08 November 2012 07:58:57AM 1 point [-]

As I mention elsewhere, ... gur grfg vf vaperqvoyl rnfl gb tnzr. Vg qbrfa'g punatr gur cbfvgvba bs cbgragvny nafjref orgjrra gnxvatf, fb trggvat n cresrpg fpber ba lbhe frpbaq gel vf cerggl rnfl.

Comment author: Nornagest 08 November 2012 08:31:53AM *  2 points [-]

That's what I thought. So if jeremysalwen is right and they're calculating scores as if their sample of results is representative, then their scoring algorithm is going to be utterly useless (perhaps outside a narrow regime around 100): the right-hand side of the curve is going to be populated entirely by people gaming the test in various ways (retakes are almost certainly common, and more sophisticated methods are likely to represent at least a couple percent of results), and I'd imagine a good chunk of the left-hand side would fall to guessers.

Comment author: [deleted] 08 November 2012 09:49:54AM 4 points [-]

Even without cheating, I don't think the people who voluntarily spend 40 minutes on an IQ test are representative of the whole population.

Comment author: rhollerith_dot_com 07 November 2012 01:28:51AM 19 points [-]

Took it.

Comment author: Divide 07 November 2012 02:34:13AM 14 points [-]

Huh, I got the date almost right - sadly, the date of death.

Comment author: MTGandP 07 November 2012 12:21:31AM 20 points [-]

Done. I think a lot of these questions are really fascinating, including user-submitted questions. I'm especially interested to see if we can do any better at avoiding anchoring than the general public.

Comment author: Username 06 November 2012 10:11:54PM *  26 points [-]

Took the whole thing, waiting till I get a good night's sleep to do the IQ test and hit submit.

For those who couldn't select or copy the links like me, here they are to click on:

Comment author: drnickbone 10 November 2012 10:17:37PM *  3 points [-]

Thanks very much for these links... I didn't complete the surveys on first read through, owing to failure of equipment (iPad) to follow the links, and lack of time. But encouraged by others here who persevered and completed the whole lot, I have followed up on them since. Not sure if I can amend the census now, but reporting here as I was mildly surprised by some of the results.

Political Compass = Left Libertarian. Somewhere near Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Dalai Lama apparently, with almost all Western politicians to the authoritarian right of me. Probably explains why I can't stand any of them!

Big Five Personality Test = High O, High C, Moderate E, Moderately-Low A, High N.

IQ Test = 133, after finally getting the Flash to work (didn't work on iPad, and skipped/auto-inserted wrong answer for every other question on Android phone). Not sure about this one; the result was some way lower than my last measurement, though that was in childhood. Checking some of the related links, the top score appears to be "above 145" even if you get every question right, which seems strange (some of the end questions looked really impossible).

Meyers Briggs = INTJ (all moderate). More or less what I expected; last did this twenty years ago and came out INTP.

Autism Test = 17, very near mean of control group.

Comment author: SPLH 06 November 2012 09:48:44PM 22 points [-]

Been there, done that survey...

I'm curious about the results.

Comment author: Ben_Welchner 06 November 2012 08:26:42PM 24 points [-]

In accordance with ancient tradition, I took the survey.

Comment author: Stephanie_Cunnane 06 November 2012 09:08:55PM 21 points [-]

Done and done.

Comment author: ahartell 06 November 2012 08:14:21PM 24 points [-]

Took the survey.

Comment author: Legolan 06 November 2012 08:21:46PM 23 points [-]

Took the survey. It was quite interesting! I'll be curious to see what the results look like . . . .

Comment author: avantguard 06 November 2012 07:33:30PM 24 points [-]

Took the survey on my iPhone so could only fill out half the answers. Politics questions were hilarious. Official delurk.

Comment author: ChrisPine 06 November 2012 06:37:36PM 24 points [-]

Took the survey.

Comment author: thomblake 06 November 2012 06:40:13PM 23 points [-]

I took the survey

Comment author: Baruta07 06 November 2012 05:47:11PM 23 points [-]

Survey: Completed, no problems. Dithered quite a bit when asked what my position was on the true Prisoners dilemma. And I keep consistently overshooting the estimation dates by 100 years (almost precisely, on the previous survey I overshot by 105 years, this time overshot by 120ish). I've started getting more involved in the community over the past 3 months.

Comment author: Baruta07 06 November 2012 09:09:12PM 4 points [-]

Just took the IQ test for fun, wasn't even trying hard for half of it, still got a 102

Comment author: shminux 06 November 2012 10:59:49PM *  3 points [-]

How does it feel to be almost exactly average?

Comment author: Baruta07 07 November 2012 08:44:25PM 2 points [-]

Quite okay actually, not sure who decided that the entire IQ test be made up of progressive reasoning tests, at least ask some other problem solving questions

Comment author: aausch 06 November 2012 05:18:59PM 23 points [-]

Censused!

Comment author: Abd 06 November 2012 03:33:06PM *  23 points [-]

Took the IQ test. Humbling. Score 110.

IQ test in high school, 156. SAT 793/800 verbal, 783/800 math. Cal Tech. Yatta yatta. But that was many years ago. It's pretty obvious what happened. Timed test. I only finished, in the time, about 2/3 - 3/4 of the questions, maybe a bit more, I didn't keep count. (I skipped questions that weren't popping up right away, thinking I'd come back. Didn't have time.)

I'm 68 years old. I used to be able to hold a conversation on the phone and read a book at the same time, about something completely different. That disappeared when I was in my late 40s. The test requires, for the more difficult problems, testing many different hypotheses, if a clear pattern doesn't pop up immediately. It's almost certain that this takes more time for me now than when I was younger.

This almost certainly impacts my communication skills, for starters.

Comment author: Friendly-HI 07 November 2012 03:34:50PM *  2 points [-]

I would be careful with the interpretation of your results.

It is very uncommon to loose 46 points even over a whole lifetime, given the assumption that nothing bad happened to your brain. Intelligence is one of, if not even the most stable personality trait known to psychology. That is why losing more than two standard deviations without any apparent reason apart from ageing should be treated as a less likely explanation than either of the following ones:

You were compared to the wrong age group. An IQ of 100 is defined as the mean score for your age group. So if you were compared to people in their 20-30's that would easily explain the unfavorable result. Your test score needs to be compared to 68 year olds (or perhaps 65 to 70 year old people). It's quite safe to say however, that you got slower compared to your younger self and other young people for that matter.

Here is another explanation that may fit very nicely to your score pattern. http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/PDF_files/a35.pdf

Excerpt: But a rather curious situation occurs when we examine the scores of gifted students on these various sets of norms. In 1960, a five-year-old achieving a mental age of 8.0 would have had an IQ score of 165. In 1972, that same raw score only yielded an IQ of 153, a difference of 12 points. Differences between the Stanford-Binet Revision IV, published in 1986, and the 1972 norms appear to be at least 13.5 points in the moderately gifted range (Thorndike, Hagen & Sattler, 1986), which would bring the same child's score down below 140. This is a loss of one IQ point per year from 1960 to 1986 for children in the gifted range. In this 26 year period, average students needed to obtain only 8 more points to make up for the average gains in intelligence of the general population, whereas gifted children needed to obtain over 25 more points to match previous scores - 1 1/2 standard deviations of IQ. This seems like an unreasonable demand.

Comment author: johnlawrenceaspden 08 November 2012 08:08:47PM 3 points [-]

Friendly-HI, are you trying to explain Abd's low score using the Flynn effect? Claiming that a modern IQ of 110 is equivalent to an IQ of 156 in the 1950s seems a bit like claiming that a modern skilled labourer is as clever as the people at Cal Tech in the 1950s. I suppose that's possible, but I would be somewhat surprised. I mean, I haven't noticed many people complaining that chess is too easy.

I'd imagine that it's some combination of age-related decline and a badly calibrated test which has a large random-number generator component. (And a tiny bit of the Flynn effect)

Remember that this is the same scheme that puts a Richard Feynman in every 20 people while Marylin Vos Savant is an impossible genius who should not have occurred in the lifetime of the species.

Comment author: Friendly-HI 09 November 2012 03:07:02PM 2 points [-]

Ideally your achieved IQ score is really a measure of your position within a normal distribution of IQ scores of your age group, where the mean (or peak) is standardized as 100 and one standard deviation equals 15 points. So an IQ of 130 is two Standard deviations above the mean and only ~ 2% of the people in your age group would be considered smarter than you.

I'm not sure age related decline factors into the decline of his IQ scores at all. That Hypothesis would only be true if the IQ-test he took was actually quite accurate and well-constructed, which would literally mean that in ~1955 only 0.05% of children in his age group were more intelligent than him and now something like 20% of ~65 year olds are more intelligent than him. Considering the stability of IQ it just doesn't seem very plausible, that age-related decline would have hit him much harder than the average old person.

The article I quoted offered an explanation that I find much more plausible. It's primary point wasn't that this is the doing of the Flynn-effect, but the following:

"When too many children are found in the upper ranges, the scores are adjusted to fit the theoretical curve.This swells the number of scores in the 120-130 range and depresses the IQ scores of the entire gifted population. The attempt to artificially force the distribution of giftedness into the normal curve results in the disappearance of 1 1/2 standard deviations of intelligence. With today's measuring devices, all IQ scores in the gifted range are most likely underestimates of ability."

Comment author: Abd 07 November 2012 04:41:53PM 3 points [-]

I would be careful with the interpretation of your results.

Well, what I wrote was banter.

There are many kinds of intelligence. The test measures a particular kind, one that could probably be simulated (AI) with relative ease (I'm not saying it's easy, but that what is involved is a series of tests, trials, of possible transforms, and then a checking of transforms that work for simplicity. It's looking for an aha! pattern.

I know that I'm not as good at this now as I was when younger. A related example: I'm looking for my black waist pack, in my office, a room full of stuff. I walk through and don't see it. We are in a hurry to leave, so I ask my 9-year-old daughter to check. She sees it immediately. It's in plain sight. I have "tunnel vision." Not literally. I still have peripheral vision. But I don't interpret the full field, as I used to, only a narrower field, more central. I have to actually look at the bag to recognize it.

I trust the test as a reasonable one, that would measure a certain kind of intelligence that is highly useful.

Damn! I'm used to thinking of myself as really smart, for almost sixty years. Time to move on. Yes, I'm still smart in some ways, but I already knew that there are many ways in which I'm not, maybe never was.

What I've been told by doctors is that the cognitive impairments I've noticed are normal. People learn to compensate for them.

Comment author: Vaniver 13 November 2012 04:07:12PM 1 point [-]

The test measures a particular kind, one that could probably be simulated (AI) with relative ease (I'm not saying it's easy, but that what is involved is a series of tests, trials, of possible transforms, and then a checking of transforms that work for simplicity. It's looking for an aha! pattern.

Here's a 2010 Master's Thesis that does pretty well on it. I remember someone came up with a better algorithm in the last year, but I'm not finding it quickly.

Comment author: Friendly-HI 13 November 2012 10:04:52AM *  2 points [-]

As age progresses, we also see a natural shift of intelligence from "fluid" to "crystallized" intelligence. The first kind is fast, adaptable and more creative, good for problem-solving, learning new things and pattern-recognition. The second kind is concerned with facts and knowledge, but also implicit knowledge/skills like how to drive a car.

IQ tests really measure fluid intelligence, less so the crystallized kind. Some IQ tests have a few questions that probe your crystallized intelligence as well, like "What was the name of the ship Charles Darwin sailed on to the Galapagos islands?" (often with 4 answers to choose from). But usually you get very few questions like those, if any at all.

Those two "kinds" of intelligence aren't completely independent though, as one would expect your fluid intelligence has a high impact on your crystallized knowledge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystallized_intelligence

Comment author: DaFranker 07 November 2012 04:14:45PM 1 point [-]

Whoa. I knew there was some weird stuff happening with high-IQ scores, but never realized it was this much.

Then again, most institutions I've seen that administer IQ tests seem to treat the formulas and scoring systems as corporate secrets or something. I should not be this surprised at the extent of the weirdness.

Comment author: Raoul589 06 November 2012 02:57:10PM 22 points [-]

I just took the survey, making this my first post that someone will read!

Comment author: bsterrett 06 November 2012 02:56:17PM 22 points [-]

I took the survey! Karma, please!

Never done an IQ test before. I thought it was fun! Now I want to take one of the legitimate ones.

Comment author: DaFranker 06 November 2012 04:17:38PM 16 points [-]

I did all of it yesterday minus the IQ test, BigFive and Autism due to lack of time and being too tired. Will take those three today.

Overall, the survey was more fun than I expected.

Comment author: blogospheroid 06 November 2012 02:33:51PM 22 points [-]

Took the survey. Was tired to take the IQ test. Thanks for the opportunity.

Comment author: Salemicus 06 November 2012 01:55:03PM 24 points [-]

I took the survey, but, like others, I was unable to answer the American-style school questions.

Comment author: CAE_Jones 06 November 2012 01:26:13PM 23 points [-]

Taken, though I had to skip the IQ test because it wasn't screen reader accessible (flash, with some text labels but no accessible controls, not that flash in general is particularly accessible).

Comment author: tetsuo55 06 November 2012 12:29:53PM 17 points [-]

I Took the survey and all the extra questions. I could not answer the USA centric school test results, we have a similar system in my country but they cannot be easily converted to eachother.

I'm glad to finally have a BigFive and IQ test that people somewhat agree on using.

Comment author: Neurosteel 06 November 2012 11:19:19AM 20 points [-]

After having read all of the Sequences, I suppose its time I actually registered. I did the survey. Here are the cogno-stats:

Big Five O80 C83 E79 A83 N9 IQ 122 Myers-Briggs E33 N88 T1 J33 Autism 15

I'm doing my PhD in the genetics of epilepsy (so a neurogenetics background is implied). Is anyone familiar with data on the reliability of the various cogno-metrics that are out there?

(Aside: political metrics L/R:-2.25 A/L:-3.54, pretty centrist on most issues, just make them based on actual data and I'll change my view in a femtosecond)

Comment author: johnlawrenceaspden 06 November 2012 12:15:23PM 16 points [-]

took

Comment author: MugaSofer 06 November 2012 11:50:54AM *  17 points [-]

Did it a few days ago, only just noticed the karma.

EDIT:

P(Supernatural) What is the probability that supernatural events, defined as those involving ontologically basic mental entities, have occurred since the beginning of the universe?

What if you believed in, say, angels or ghosts that used powers from outside the matrix?

Comment author: DaFranker 06 November 2012 04:16:10PM 3 points [-]

What if you believed in, say, angels or ghosts that used powers from outside the matrix?

I assumed that those aren't counted. They don't sound really ontologically basic, just "hard to access". We can-in-principle break outside the box, and we are-in-principle causally linked to outside-the-matrix powers, or something like that.

Comment author: TraderJoe 06 November 2012 10:35:27AM 18 points [-]

Next year the survey should include an option to explain why your IQ is actually higher than was measured.

Comment author: Divide 07 November 2012 02:39:04AM 4 points [-]

I dunno, on my test it came up higher than expected (and higher than the result of a pro test they gave me in primary school once).

Comment author: Kindly 07 November 2012 05:20:16AM 2 points [-]

I guess this year we can assume that everybody had such an explanation, and imagine the best possible version of it, sight unseen.

Comment author: RobinZ 07 November 2012 05:46:21AM 3 points [-]

Dibs on "I took the survey really late at night and I was tired"!

Comment author: [deleted] 11 November 2012 12:37:26AM 1 point [-]

Dammit!

Comment author: ChrisHallquist 06 November 2012 08:59:02AM 20 points [-]

I took the IQ test in the extra questions section. I clicked "submit" long before the time ran out, even when I knew I was essentially guessing on some of the questions, because I had gotten sick of the damn thing. My score came back a 122, which pissed me off because I'm fairly sure my real IQ is higher than that.

Then I realized this may be a good metaphor for my life. In the future, when asked my IQ, I'll respond, "I don't know, but my lack-of-patience-adjusted IQ is about 120."

Comment author: nshepperd 06 November 2012 08:27:43AM 17 points [-]

Done! Yay!

Comment author: Nighteyes5678 06 November 2012 07:49:26AM 17 points [-]

Completed. Huzzah! I feel like a participating member of the community.

Comment author: ChrisHallquist 06 November 2012 09:08:18AM 11 points [-]

I liked this survey, but there was one minor annoyance: the "when will the Singularity happen?" question. "Singularity" in which sense? I decided to run with the weak version of the "event horizon" (Vernor Vinge) claim, but the question could have been clearer.

Comment author: johnlawrenceaspden 06 November 2012 01:18:36PM 4 points [-]

I'm completely baffled by questions 26, 29, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 on the iq test. (http://iqtest.dk) I think I must be missing something. Can anyone explain what the answers are and why?

Comment author: Abd 07 November 2012 01:01:22AM 3 points [-]

Should we answer here? Some people are still taking the test. I have this issue with a number of comments in this thread. The instructions did not mention anything about reading the comments before taking the survey.

Comment author: [deleted] 07 November 2012 01:08:43AM 1 point [-]

If you're concerned with that, you can use ROT-13. But yeah, we should have told people not to read comments before taking the survey.

Comment author: Abd 07 November 2012 01:29:14AM *  1 point [-]

question 26 only. rot13

Frcnengryl pbafvqre gur "znva yvar," naq gur npprffbel yvarf. Va rirel genafsbezngvba, gur znva yvar ebgngrf pbhagrepybpxjvfr 45 qrterrf. Gung yrnqf gb N, Q, naq R nf cbffvovyvgvrf. Va gur gjb iregvpny genafsbezngvbaf, gur npprffbel yvarf pbaarpg gb gur raqcbvagf bs gur znva yvar. Gung yrnirf bayl N. Gurer vf nyfb n pbafvfgrapl va gur ebgngvba bs gur fznyyre yvarf, ohg vg'f zber pbzcyrk gb rkcerff. Guvf vf yvxryl abg gur orfg nafjre.

In looking again at the survey, I answered no questions at all, and got an IQ score of 78. I answered A to all questions and also got a 78.

This calls the test into question, which I'd love to do. Effing test gave me a 110 when I tried! How sucky is that?

(I think it might be a good test, showing me a developing problem with speed. But obviously it doesn't work well at the low end.)

Comment author: Mexamark 06 November 2012 03:02:35AM 17 points [-]

I just took it but I'd like to make a few points:

At the end of a year, which hospital will have the greater number of days on which more than 60% of the babies born were girls?

Is it asking about the total number of babies born at the day or babies born at each hospital?

Redwood question.

Please, use meters next time.

Comment author: [deleted] 06 November 2012 01:35:38PM 8 points [-]

Redwood question.

Please, use meters next time.

Better still, ask a question for which everyone in the world would natively use the same units.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 06 November 2012 03:54:07AM 2 points [-]

Is it asking about the total number of babies born at the day or babies born at each hospital?

If I'm understanding your question correctly, you're distinguishing between the following two interpretations:

  1. At the end of a year, which hospital will have the greater number of days on which more than 60% of the babies born [summed over both hospitals] were girls?
    and
  2. At the end of a year, which hospital will have the greater number of days on which more than 60% of the babies born [at that hospital] were girls?

Did I understand that correctly, or is there some other interpretation you have in mind?

Comment author: Unnamed 06 November 2012 04:03:56AM *  4 points [-]

The intended interpretation is #2:

At the end of a year, which hospital will have the greater number of days on which more than 60% of the babies born [at that hospital] were girls?

Comment author: magfrump 06 November 2012 04:14:50AM 13 points [-]

I was 26 years off on Bayes' birth and 21 feet off on the tallest redwood.

Also the first time I took the IQ test I accidentally hit the back button on my mouse, and didn't remember how much time I was supposed to have left, so I just went through everything and submitted right away. I'm not sure how much I would have gotten out of the last 5-10 minutes or whatever but it made me feel bad.

I felt like the Big 5 test rated me lower on Openness and Conscientiousness than I remember from tests in the past, but those are from long long ago. The Myers-Briggs rated me as more F and J than I expected (or less T and P) and I think the question framing is maybe bad for someone who lives in faulty emotional hardware in a mathematical universe.

I reproduced my results from all of the tests verbatim, regardless of whether I agreed with them; I noticed at least one comment of someone who did not, and I'm wondering how common people's responses to disagreement with personality tests was.

Comment author: Jay_Schweikert 06 November 2012 01:19:57AM 17 points [-]

Took basically all of the survey except for the extra IQ tests. Thanks, Yvain! Looking forward to seeing the results.

Comment author: [deleted] 06 November 2012 12:18:28AM 18 points [-]

Fear me for I answered all the questions and took all the auxillary tests!

Comment author: Crude_Dolorium 05 November 2012 09:32:50PM 24 points [-]

I took the survey, and the extra credit, and the pretext to delurk.

Comment author: [deleted] 05 November 2012 10:46:14PM 19 points [-]

Done.

Comment author: selylindi 05 November 2012 09:26:53PM *  21 points [-]

I took it.

For the P(Warming) question, you might get people answering different versions of the question on this. For example, my personal evaluation of the probability of warming and that humans are a major cause is very, very high, but my evaluation of the probability that humans are the primary cause is much lower.

Comment author: matsn 05 November 2012 09:02:25PM 20 points [-]

Survey completed!

Comment author: kalium 05 November 2012 07:05:12PM 27 points [-]

Have been lurking for a few years now; did the survey and most of the extra questions.

Comment author: Vaniver 05 November 2012 08:18:18PM *  20 points [-]

Done! I only estimated my amount of time in the community, though, which may lead to an amusing disagreement with last year's survey.

Comment author: Cakoluchiam 08 November 2012 07:25:40AM 1 point [-]

I too had to estimate my time in the community (even though this is my first day posting anything)—I started lurking shortly after Yvain mentioned it in his blog, but he is a prolific enough writer that digging through those archives would be a mind-numbing task. Perhaps there's someone else who's done the dirty work for me? (hoping)

Comment author: Vaniver 08 November 2012 02:27:26PM 1 point [-]

Last time, I figured it out by writing a script that went through my comments until it hit the earliest one, but that only worked because I made an account as soon as I got here. (I probably could have gone hunting for the results of that script, but I didn't care as much this time around.)

I imagine Yvain has mentioned LW on his blog enough times that it'd be difficult to do an automated solution (but you might be able to just make a list of links to LW from posts, then choose from those).

Comment author: Cakoluchiam 08 November 2012 08:50:03PM 1 point [-]

Thanks for the idea. I know he referenced OvercomingBias for a while before LessWrong, and I read a handful of articles there, but I think my sparse interest in following anything, aside from what was crossposted or linked at Yvain's blog, makes any claim of seniority a potential false representation of my expertise.

This is sort of the inverse problem of the way I counted the start of my last relationship more than a year earlier than my then-partner would. One good thing I can say for weddings (aside from marriage) is that at least they solidify a date to count as anniversary. So, I suppose now that I've finally registered an account, I can count today for future anniversaries between myself and LessWrong.

Comment author: Bill_McGrath 05 November 2012 07:58:29PM 21 points [-]

Survey taken.

Comment author: Dannil 05 November 2012 08:09:24PM 19 points [-]

Done, except for the very last part and the IQ questions (I have never taken a proper test).

Comment author: fizzfaldt 05 November 2012 04:42:31PM 29 points [-]

Took the survey; Did everything but the IQ test. I recognized some of the questions, and I decided I didn't have an extra 40 minutes to spare.

<Invocation of ancient tradition>

Comment author: thomblake 05 November 2012 05:24:50PM 23 points [-]

Took it.

Comment author: zplesivcak 05 November 2012 03:42:35PM 26 points [-]

Took the survey. I've accidentally submitted unfinished one, before answering to all the questions I wanted to answer. Please ignore that submission.

Comment author: shirisaya 05 November 2012 03:37:19PM 26 points [-]

I took the survey and answered everything through the political compass.

Comment author: borntowin 05 November 2012 03:32:26PM 26 points [-]

Took the survey and actually liked it :)

Comment author: radical_negative_one 05 November 2012 01:55:39PM 31 points [-]

I finished the survey! Including the Unreasonably Long and Complicated part which i admit took even longer than i expected.

Comment author: fortyeridania 05 November 2012 02:09:34PM 26 points [-]

I took it, and answered many of the "extra credit" questions (though not all of them).

Comment author: bbleeker 05 November 2012 01:06:00PM 31 points [-]

Ì took it. ALL of it.

Comment author: [deleted] 05 November 2012 01:48:47PM 27 points [-]

I took the survey, and I answered the first extra credit question, but not the others. When I realized it would take THAT long (I hadn't yet scrolled down to reveal each Extra Credit Question was going to be as long as the first), I thought it would take too much time.