Numbers that might actually matter

I've been pretty bad about blogging because I just completely forget! So I'm going to write a few long blogs, starting with this one, in the next few days.

Last week I spent some time at Hawken testing people for project. (I got a total of 13 people at Hawken, which is pretty good, considering that it takes almost a half hour for one person to complete the two tests). It was interesting to see how different people reacted to the test. Some didn't really care how they did, some (I won't name any names) agonized over answers to the test for a good hour. People who agonized tended to do either really well or pretty badly.

One interesting problem that I've been running into is the sheer number of interpretations for one test (for the few of you that have taken it, it's the scenario one - the Theory of Mind test). If I explain too much, I essentially give away the method for beating the test. If I don't explain enough, I get lots of questions about assumptions that were made in the scenario, etc. -one person even asked me, 'does it matter if they're, like, Indian or something?'

Yeah...no. It really doesn't - if it did, it would have been written into the scenario. But I can't explain too much, or I completely give away the test, which is in reality very simple for a normal person and completely formulaic. And if I cover all the bases and rule out all the assumptions that could be made, my one-slide scenario would become a monstrous novel. And that would probably also cause the format of the test to become really obvious (not that it isn't already - my dad and Catherine Blebea figured it out) - it would be like dangling the answer right in front of the person's nose.

So I suppose I'll just have to make do. I'm hoping to find some sort of relationship between some variables like the scores on the two tests, age, maybe years of schooling, etc. But so far, everything just looks like a mess of numbers with no relationship. I'm trying to learn how to use Excel! It amazes me that I got through Hawken without learning how to use it - I think we literally did two physics labs this year that required only a very basic understanding of Excel. So I'm sure this will be a good learning experience. I have a feeling that knowing how to use Excel will come in very handy in college.

The nice thing about this project, though, is that even though I'm dealing with lots of numbers, it feels useful. (My project isn't a legit scientific study at all, but still.) The questions I'm looking at are questions that are asked in the real world, and if answered, could improve quality of life for real people. I suppose this is what life is going to increasingly be like for all of us from now on - not just hypothetical point masses moving at hypothetical speeds, or skills being developed for hypothetical jobs and situations.