From: "the_walrus@bigfoot.com" <the_walrus@bigfoot.com>
Subject: Re: Make what user wants?
Date: 1997/09/26
Date: 1997-09-26T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <342BE793.7CD8@bigfoot.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 342BA9EA.429DA7DB@calfp.com
Richie Bielak wrote:
> I worry how much information is being lost, when 20 pages of
> figures are reduced to a single line. By looking at those
> pages the users could have possibly spotted thing that
> now are invisible - people are great pattern recognizers
> and computers are not.
Egad, you're right! All those individual figures in each of the first
and last columns were lost when they were summed! Even worse ... the
sums were lost when they were compared!
It's actually the maths that's at fault, 'tho, not the computer, since
they were ALREADY LOSING THE INFORMATION by using the maths in the first
place, before the computer was even in the equation.
The inescapable conclusion is that we stop counting things ... if you
ask me how many sheep are in the field, and I say "twenty", then we've
lost the information that one of them had a black spot on its shoulder.
What I should do instead, when you ask, is drive you down to the field
so that you can judge for yourself ... after all, people are great
pattern recognisers!
walrus.
Sorry, btw ... this isn't intended as a flame, just a bit of gentle
humour ... must be all that beer at dinnertime that keeps doing this to
my brain ;)
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1997-09-26 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 10+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1997-09-17 0:00 The great Java showcase (re: 2nd historic mistake) Ell
1997-09-16 0:00 ` Mark Wilden
1997-09-17 0:00 ` Robert B. Love
1997-09-17 0:00 ` Joachim Durchholz
1997-09-17 0:00 ` Make what user wants? Bert Bril
1997-09-17 0:00 ` Rick Price
[not found] ` <bengtk-1809971106150001@sl86.modempool.kth.se>
1997-09-23 0:00 ` Dick Botting JB341
1997-09-26 0:00 ` Richie Bielak
1997-09-26 0:00 ` the_walrus [this message]
1997-09-30 0:00 ` "Paul E. Bennett"
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