orthonormal comments on Survey Results - Less Wrong

48 Post author: Yvain 12 May 2009 10:09PM

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Comment author: orthonormal 13 May 2009 05:11:32PM 6 points [-]

The "wisdom of crowds" would only apply if everyone is trying to actually get the answer right, and if the errors of incompetence are somewhat random. A large number of intentional pranksters (or one prankster who says "a googolplex") can predictably screw up the average by introducing large variance or acting in a non-random fashion.