PetjaY comments on Typicality and Asymmetrical Similarity - Less Wrong

25 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 06 February 2008 09:20PM

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Comment author: Lee_Turpin 07 February 2008 05:48:50PM 1 point [-]

I hate to say this, but technically 98 is closer to 100 than 100 is to 98. The difference between 98 and 100 is (100-98)/100 or 2%. The difference between 100 and 98 is (98-100)/98 or 2.04%. True, the difference between is only 2, but the percentage differences are, um, different. With this idea in mind, is this a type of bias that can carry over to other comparisons? (e.g. Mexico could theoretically be closer to the US (politics, standard of living, etc.) than the US is to Mexico (currency, language, etc.)) Or have I missed something important here?

Comment author: PetjaY 01 May 2015 07:40:48PM 0 points [-]

When you count percentages, you always count percentages of something. In this case you count percentages of 100 in one case, and percentages of 98 in the other, which explains why you get different numbers