wispfox: (Default)
wispfox ([personal profile] wispfox) wrote2008-04-09 11:21 am
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previous poll

Y'know, I wasn't actually trying to frustrate you lot with that poll.

There is no 'right' answer; indeed, I suspect that that very lack is part of the point.

That was the hardest question taken from the fluid intelligence part of the most commonly used adult intelligence test. Which my mom (a school psych) noted does not necessarily mean it's the _best_ intelligence test, of course, but is a question she uses to help explain fluid reasoning when in meetings about kids she's working with.

The speed and confidence parts were added by me. And perhaps I should not have, as that may have encouraged the belief in a 'right' answer.

Clearly I should have been more clear about there not being a 'right' answer. *wry*

[identity profile] johnpalmer.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 05:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Oof. I hope my comment didn't spur this... I wasn't really frustrated, but I did see "confidence" as a quavery quantity there.

I can see two types of confidence: that you'd come up with a defensible, workable answer, and that you'd come up with "the right answer". And you can't be confident that you came up with the specific right answer that someone else had.

My answer was a joke answer; if this was an ancient riddle, it was probably not the "right" answer (though who knows? some of the old riddlers probably got goofy from time to time).

[identity profile] wispfox.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Your comment was not what sparked this; the combination of the first 5 or so comments did. No worries.

Your comment is, however, managing to make me stare at it a lot. ;)

[identity profile] wispfox.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Also, you explaining what you were trying to say with your earlier comment was good; I was failing to make the connection to 'confidence' as a tricky value. I mean I knew it was, but did not have a good feel for why. Your comment did give me that! :)

[identity profile] kightp.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
I think your answer is the sort that would cause the Evil Riddle-Asking Monster to let you go, grudgingly, instead of eating you on the spot.

Which, you know, works. (-:

[identity profile] johnpalmer.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Or possibly be obliterated by a flying scale model of the QE2 filled with explosives.

(Oh, come now; sure you've heard of a cruise missile.)

[identity profile] kightp.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 07:53 pm (UTC)(link)
*hee*

[livejournal.com profile] wispfox is, no doubt, staring even harder now.

(Don't worry, this is perfectly normal. I've learned to be very fond of surrealism, atrocious puns and the occasional improvised rap song).

[identity profile] wispfox.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 08:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Neh, not staring too hard. Mostly amused by the two of you. :)

[identity profile] kightp.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
I live to entertain. (-:

[identity profile] johnpalmer.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 07:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh: just in case people think I'm only joking about cruise missiles:

http://johnpalmer.livejournal.com/120908.html#cutid1

[identity profile] wispfox.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay, silly links!