On being wrong

So we're looking at a sliding scale of wrongness, from "1 too many" to "Giraffe"

Should it be a logarithmic scale?
 
3*3=10 ........ a stud who went the extra mile
3*3=333 ....... a stud who could write a guide on doing it right
3*3=girraffe .. a stud who made a regrettable choice

:)
 
How's this for a 5 minute error taxonomy:

Accidental error - a mistake of action, not cognition (a typo)

Incidental error - a mistake arising out of unfamiliarity with a subject (newbie mistake)

Conceptual error - a mistake arising out of a misunderstanding of a subject (green belt mistake; you know just enough to hurt yourself)

Perverse error - a mistake arising out of willful misconception or ignorance of a subject (woo)

Absurd error - a fundamental mismatch between question and answer (3 * 3 = giraffe)
 
If anyone wants me, I'll be in my box, being wrong.... as usual.

:boxedin:

ETA.... and evil. Muahahahahaha!
 
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skip said:
I think what you have here is 1: a mistake. 2: ignorance. 3: wrong.

1: is you know the right answer and just miss type/speak.
2: is just not understanding the question asked.
3: is Wrong…

Wrong is wrong, it’s black and white. How you react to your wrongness is another question.


skip
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.
Never be wring, or wreng, or whatever that word is.
Helps a lot.
 
I steal from the master, Wolfgang Pauli: "This isn't right. It's not even wrong."

3x3 = Giraffe isn't even wrong.

Or another, which I'm blanking on:

"People thought the earth was flat. They were wrong. People thought the world was spherical. They were wrong too. But if you think they were equally wrong, then you're wronger than both combined."
 
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Cuddles said:
You're wrong.

Sorry, couldn't resist.:)



I think there's room for at least a couple more categories there. Or possibly less. The trouble is that they're not really distinct categories, more of a continuum, and they're not necessarily mutually exclusive.

One thing I do think is missing is the question of honesty. 3*3 = 10 may be an honest mistake (as might 3*3 = 6, which caused me to miss getting full marks in an exam once), but it may also be entirely deliberate. Say you're promoting a product, and you just happen to make such an error and end up stating that the effectiveness is higher than it really is. Even if noticed and later forced to be corrected, most people won't notice the later retraction. The same applies to the other categories as well. There are all kinds of woo products around whose explanations amount to little more than 3*3 = Giraffe. As long as it's a quantum giraffe.

So I think you could use an extra fourth category which would be "Any of the first three, but done deliberately.".
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I think instead we should consider multiple axes of being wrong.

On the X axis, we have the how - error in execution, error in methodology, error in the wiring of the brain. On the Y axis we have intent - i.e. are you actually trying to be right?
 
3*3 = 10 ... CORRECT (Using a base-9 numbering system)
3*3 = 333 ... CORRECT (Using a non-positional numbering system)
3*3 = Giraffe ... CORRECT (Using a pictorial numbering system where an image of a giraffe is used to represent the number nine)

:D

ETA: Actually, let's use a cat to represent the number 3 in the pictorial numbering system, so now we have cat*cat=giraffe.
 
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Cuddles said:
You're wrong.

Sorry, couldn't resist.:)

[snip]
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Considering you concluded with putting a fourth category, that would actually make him right, because he said "at least three" which of course opens up for the possibility of four (or even more) categories.

Hey, if you can't resist, then why should I? ;)
 
aggle-rithm said:
By the way, in software design, 3X3 = Giraffe is called a "grey hole". Unlike a black hole, in which input goes in and nothing ever comes out, a grey hole swallows up input and spits out something totally irrelevant.

FYI, a process where nothing goes in and yet somehow something comes out is called a "miracle".
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I would have thought a hole from which something completely irrelevant came out, at least in forum terms, would be a sort of pinky brownish beige. Seriously though, it amuses me that there's a work for such things.

A
 
skip said:
I think what you have here is 1: a mistake. 2: ignorance. 3: wrong.

1: is you know the right answer and just miss type/speak.
2: is just not understanding the question asked.
3: is Wrong…

Wrong is wrong, it’s black and white. How you react to your wrongness is another question.


skip
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I thought I was wrong once.
Turns out, I wasn't.







That had to go in here somewhere . . .
 
The mistaken wrong arnt allways wrong, just not as precise as the next person demands, given he has the exact answer. Can be quite irritating sometimes.
Person A asks person B: So how many people did we have today?
B: Well, id say about twenty.
C: Heard that, you are wrong! I counted, there were twenty one!
B smacks C in the face.
 
Andrew Wiggin said:
I would have thought a hole from which something completely irrelevant came out, at least in forum terms, would be a sort of pinky brownish beige. Seriously though, it amuses me that there's a work for such things.

A
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And surrounded by the lushest lips, in an angelic face... but I digress..
 
Brian-M said:
3*3 = 10 ... CORRECT (Using a base-9 numbering system)
3*3 = 333 ... CORRECT (Using a non-positional numbering system)
3*3 = Giraffe ... CORRECT (Using a pictorial numbering system where an image of a giraffe is used to represent the number nine)

:D

ETA: Actually, let's use a cat to represent the number 3 in the pictorial numbering system, so now we have cat*cat=giraffe.
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Um, wouldn't your text be wrong?

:catface: * :catface: = :llama:

Even this is wrong, because I couldn't find a giraffe image. but what *kind* of wrong?
 
Brian-M said:
Not if I'm using the words for the animals to represent the image of the animals that represent the number. :hypnotize
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But then your *equation* would be wrong in the same way that "the numeral three plus the numeral five equals the numeral eight" is wrong.

Right? :P
 
aggle-rithm said:
FYI, a process where nothing goes in and yet somehow something comes out is called a "miracle".
Click to expand...

All praise baby jesus.

I think Philosaur summed up the degrees of wrongness best, bust missed probably the most important one, "This is so wrong, yet feels so right".I think I have the most experience with that one.
 
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