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What information has surprised you most recently?

11 FiftyTwo 09 December 2012 04:43AM

Information that surprises you is interesting as it exposes where you have been miscalibrated, and allows you to correct for that. 

I suspect the users of LessWrong have fairly similar beliefs, so it is probable that information that has surprised you would surprise others here, so it would be useful for them if you shared them. 

Example: In a discussion with a friend recently I realised I had massively miscalibrated on the percentage of the UK population who shared my beliefs on certain subjects, in general the population was far more conservative than I had expected.

In retrospect I was assuming my own personal experience was more representative than it was, even when attempting to correct for that.