this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
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Anything that makes you apply your hand to your face.
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It's indeed a form of mental laziness because the mind is designed to approach some concepts with a non-perfect optimization. That's heuristics. Yes, I can very easily see which number is the largest if I put my mind at it. But scanning over a fast food chain-sized menu, seeing numbers for 2, 4, 8, 12 piece nuggets, prices on different items and a 1/3 pound burger next to a 1/4 pound burger, I could easily see my mind skip the math and mess up the size comparrison.
I'm all up for being corrected if I'm wrong in my laguage somehow, but that article seems to be 100% in line with my understanding. What do you find to be wrong?
I think we just disagree on the level something has to be to be considered "pragmatic". Almost all numbers we deal with in a daily basis are not fractions, so it's very natural to develop a shortcut to quickly look at digits to compare numbers. That is a practical approach.
Now, if you don't get too stuck on the word "pragmatic" but actually finish the sentence, you might find it to be more applicable.
Or maybe even look at the wikipedia page for heuristics from a psychological perspective:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristic_(psychology)
That's exactly it: heuristics are mental shortcuts. It's about avoiding the thinking part. No, I don't think that larger digits mean larger numbers in every case. But when scanning over multiple numbers without putting thought into it, it is a shortcut which works most of the time.
It's not fully logical. It might even be considered dumb. But that doesn't mean it doesn't fit the description of the word. That's just not how words work.
No, it's the correct line of thought in most cases, as most numbers we work with on a daily basis are not fractions. This might be skewed differently in the US, but it's a solution which works in most cases. Heuristics are not necessarily perfect solutions and additional considerations need to be applied when they fail.
You're discarding all the sources and arguments we're discussing, insulting me with childish language and throwing a hissy fit. I thought we had a reasonable discussion going, but this is obviously over.
Good day.
If somebody uses a heuristic that’s flat-out wrong, is it no longer a heuristic?