Monday, September 16, 2019
Pass the test and reject the test
A nice Godel in an article supposedly about numeracy.
The article begins with a word problem about probability, calling it a good test of math skills.
In fact the specific problem isn't about math at all. It tests your ability to see which variables are important and which are irrelevant. After you reject the irrelevant parts the math is extremely simple. The problem would test the same ability if it used non-numeric variables.
(It's a lot like this question, also falsely described as a math test.)
The article goes on to list several cases where people who overestimate their own math ability make poor decisions.
In fact the real variable in each decision is not math but confidence.
I was able to solve the initial problem (slowly!) by rejecting irrelevant mathiness, so I then applied the same rejection to the rest of the article. The decisions, like the probability, had nothing to do with math or math skills.
In short, the article is just saying that people who know their own ability know their own ability.
Labels: variables and variables
¶ 5:35 AM
