(no subject)

[redbird]

• I am more than slightly disconcerted that I can do arithmetic in my head not only faster, but much more accurately, than one of my coworkers managed with a calculator.


• To the list of startling foods that julian_tiger likes enough to demand more of, add mango ice (in popsicle style, as marketed by Delicioso Coco Helado). Less amusingly, he managed to step on just the wrong sequence of answering machine buttons late this afternoon, and delete all the saved messages.


• This low-grade illness is starting to remind me of Yossarian's liver complaint.

Comments

Disconcerting Mental Arithmetic Speed/Accuracy

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

You'll get used to it.

Does say sad things about how much to trust anything other people had to calculate though. Especially since most people seem to trust numbers from a calculator even when it ought to be obvious something's wrong with the answer. (There's been at least one study...)

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I've been occasionally surprised by being faster in my head than someone else using a calculator, but haven't noticed that I'm more accurate.

My late aunt had a wallet card with reeeeeeeelly tiny print on it for figuring out tips. I could ALWAYS get the tip in my head faster than she could look it up.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

People sometimes forget the GIGO principle with calculators... Garbage In, Garbage Out. If they are using the wrong numbers _or the wrong technique_ (and I have seen people do that -- not perform the calculation they thought they were then wonder why the answer looked wrong), they're not going to get the right number at the end.