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AnonTechie (2275)
Journal of AnonTechie (2275)
How many numbers have found their way into your brain today? 10? 100? 1,000?
What if you include the number of steps and heartbeats from your smartwatch? Likes and followers on social media? Numbers at work, from your bank, in games, apps, and in your inbox? According to estimates, we now collectively generate more numbers every day than all of humankind combined scraped together between creation and year 2010.
Now, try to stop and think for a moment how these numbers, consciously and unconsciously, make their way into your brain and influence the decisions you make every single day. Because these numbers do fool you, those little bastards. Numbers at work tweak your motivation and effort. Social media numbers make the social scene a competitive nightmare and create winners and losers. Your Fitbit numbers make you run faster in the short run, but eventually turn running into a work and a chore. And every single number you let into your brain serves as a frame of reference against which you compare and evaluate the world.
[...] So be aware: Numbers are everywhere, you believe them to be true (even when they are not), and they bias your decisions in more ways than you can imagine. Maybe you need a detox.
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday March 11, @05:19PM (2 children)
Observing numbers just now. It's global fun.
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 11, @06:42PM (1 child)
420 blaze it
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12, @08:02PM
420 == -69
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 11, @05:26PM (1 child)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12, @08:12PM
How about using time and dates in predictions? They always come back to bite you. Like prominent experts the '70s predicting the laying waste of just about everything, and it was all due twenty years ago.
Like Greta proclaiming that all humanity would be wiped out within in five years if we didn't stop using fossil fuels.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by krishnoid on Saturday March 11, @06:22PM
Stick with orders of magnitude instead. Once something (not directly related to your personal health) jumps up or down by an order of magnitude, notice it; otherwise, maybe just wait. But ask for that order of magnitude [youtu.be], or someone could just be making the whole thing up. Then don't attack them for making things up, but you can move forward with the information you have at least.
Like when I'm asking a doctor or dentist or whatever for a cost of something, and they don't want to be on the hook for it, I'll sometimes say, "I don't need an exact number, but like $10? $100? $1000? $10000? Even a rough range would be helpful, just for budgeting purposes." By $10E3, they usually break in and make it clear that they can give me *some* kind of estimate that'll make them look like they won't be charging me the cost of a crummy used car for an annual physical.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12, @12:17AM (1 child)
Some numbers just bring joy and wonder: https://oeis.org/ [oeis.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Monday March 13, @03:09PM
Sum constants also bring joy and blunder. Such as Kaprekar's Constant. [wikipedia.org]
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12, @02:40AM (1 child)
Turn off your step counter. Unsubscribe to investment and real estate advice.
Fly a kite, walk along the beach, have a herbal tea. Plant a vegetable patch. Breathe. Relax.
Hyperventilating about numbers is clickbait nonsense.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday March 15, @06:34PM
Reminds me of "A Beautiful Mind" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Beautiful_Mind_(film) [wikipedia.org] , maybe they're schizo and just don't know it?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"