I don't know-- I've eaten some pretty bad cheeseburgers at good restaurants.
Chicken Parmigiana is my "safe-bet" food if I'm eating somewhere I don't trust.
The List of N Things
41–50 of 68 posts
Re: The List of N Things
#42> You think of n/2 of them in the first 5 minutes. The word that leaps to mind here is "half". :)
Why use four characters when you can use three?
I think it's sort of a textual fist-bump to people who smile when they see n followed by n/2, because it means something's about to get logarithmic, and we like that.
Re: The List of N Things
#43> You think of n/2 of them in the first 5 minutes. The word that leaps to mind here is "half". :)
Because the moment I read n/2 I wondered which kind of distribution n has, for t. It could be (cumulative) exponential. Ideas would then be independent and random. That doesn't feel right, because ideas are very much related, but a better model doesn't immediately spring to mind. Had he said half, I would never consider the distribution of ideas over time. And I bet pg considered the distribution while writing the es…
You can play the Zeno game with this.
The first half of the items is actually an article of n/2 items - so you think of n/4 in the first 5 minutes.
So you never actually think of an item.
Re: The List of N Things
#44"The list of n things similarly limits the damage that can be done by a bad writer." I have more things I want to do than I have time to do them; why in the world would I waste time reading something if I expected it to be by a bad writer? I have quit reading writers before when I came across strong evidence of bias or incompetence in their writings.
A bad writer does not bad ideas make!
Re: The List of N Things
#45Re: The List of N Things
#46I really find that to be true all the time. I would much rather click on a list of n things rather than an article about the same topic.
Re: The List of N Things
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
To generalize: why use n characters when you can use n-1?
bc it sux On a related note, here's how to abuse the concept of URL shorteners in order to produce messages in which embedding a URL costs zero additional characters: http://www.byrnehobart.com/blog/steganographic-typo-based-ur...
even easier, every 64 characters are 64 bits, simply strtolower all the characters then make the '0' bits lowercase... No typos needed, still plenty of space.
Maybe use a magic pattern in the first few characters to indicate a url ID is present.
Re: The List of N Things
#48Regarding making explicitly numbered lists of n things in school, I am pretty sure thy do that in the lower grades, although not in essay form. For example, children have to write "5 things I learned about x" or "5 things I like about y" and are graded on relevancy and sometimes persuasiveness...if I am remembering correctly anyway.
Re: The List of N Things
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the moment I read n/2 I wondered which kind of distribution n has, for t. It could be (cumulative) exponential. Ideas would then be independent and random. That doesn't feel right, because ideas are very much related, but a better model doesn't immediately spring to mind. Had he said half, I would never consider the distribution of ideas over time. And I bet pg considered the distribution while writing the es…
You can play the Zeno game with this. The first half of the items is actually an article of n/2 items - so you think of n/4 in the first 5 minutes. So you never actually think of an item.
Sci-fi quantum physics takes care of that. Eventually, two correlated ideas randomly pop into existence, and then it's just a race to see how many more ideas you can build on them within 5 minutes.
Re: The List of N Things
#50> You think of n/2 of them in the first 5 minutes. The word that leaps to mind here is "half". :)
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