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Underlying paper: http://se-naist.jp/pman3/pman3.cgi?DOWNLOAD=579

Survey N = 20, selected by cold-emailing open source developers.



Bad questions too. Writing that something is low risk in a question does not make the person react like if the risk is small.

It can easily go the other way, people read risk and instantly assume it's large.


Off the cuff bullshit thesis:

Engineers read risk and assume it’s large.

Managers of engineers read risk and assume it’s small.

That bit in the middle where they are both right and wrong? ...


Wow, that's not very many.


Also biased as heck


Not at all. To be statistically significant, you typically need 1000 or more test cases / individuals.


That isn’t how statistical significance works at all:

https://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm


It depends on what you measured. For example, if you ask 20 people a yes/no question and they all say yes, the chance that they would all agree by chance is 1 in 2^19.


If they are selected randomly

(On the other hand, if you go to a board game convention and ask 20 people if they like board games...)


Sure, but that has little to do with sample size.


It’s very difficult to randomly sample 20 people. And impossible if anyone is or even could be dropped from the study.

Do you include prisoners, homeless, those with diminished mental capacity, or even people on the run from the law etc.


The questions are horrible




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