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He isn't being very fair: where the goal at first was to be as right as possible, it later became "to piss off as few of the 300 guests as possible". I'm not sure what exact procedure he had in mind for businesses, but in a situation where "votes eliminate the interesting edges, leaving only the boring residue that no one hated enough to vote off the island" applies, you're just not talking about the wisdom of crowds anymore, this wasn't possible in his earlier examples either. An important factor to the wisdom of crowds, and a key difference between his earlier examples and his later examples, is that people vote independently, without even talking about what they're going to vote.

For demonstrational purposes, I will now take his holiday meal situation and apply actual wisdom of crowds to them. This isn't a very usual situation, but this is about properly applying the wisdom of crowds.

Instead of people stating what they dislike, people may nominate a meal, and afterwards, everyone votes for the meal they want to go with. Like in the Wants to be a Millionaire examples, people cannot talk in this process - they cannot state what they dislike. Instead, the fact that some people can't take spicy food will show in the results, but beside that, every individual will pick a meal that isn't boring, and the end result will be just that. "Allergic to garlic" and "doesn’t eat anything green" are rather specific complaints and were not taken into account, so let's count those 3 people as unsatisfied, but the success here is that most people will in fact be satisfied with the meal.


You can't use your technique for meals because everyone will suggest a different meal, and then you have no basis for a decision. That technique works when you're voting on one variable which has one CORRECT value which you're trying to seek. Creative work is not that.


Was it me or was that article written in a rather simplistic and childish way? 'All was good and well, something a bit odd but funny happened, but then this jerk came along and he started to ruin everything!'

Near the end he suddenly jumped really fast to his conclusion, namely that he supports women-only groups (or, as he likes to spell it, 'women only groups'), but he really doesn't explain why other than saying that it offers a more comfortable entrance to them. He doesn't link his conclusion to the rest of the article, and I don't see how this specific occurrence adds to the conclusion. Because the jerk happened to be male? I'd like to address him for overgeneralizing males, but he just straight out avoids being clear about it.

But even if it was safe to say that only males act like jerks, that still does not mean that every male is like that, and it certainly doesn't mean women should be kept separated from males in education. If a male is being a jerk, the problem is that he's being a jerk, not the fact that he's a male. I fail to see why to differ between male and female and the article does not make it clear in the slightest.


> Motorola’s contention that the term has a “plain and ordinary meaning” is ridiculous; Motorola seems to have forgotten that this is a jury trial.

Look who's talking.


It's nice to see a page translated through Google on the front page. It's an indication that technology is breaking some barriers.


Richard Magnificent Stallion.


The blackout or 'bat signal' page can contain all the relevant information, reaching out to a lot more people. Many people would miss out on that page because of lazy webmasters.


Footnote: ACTA is in fact older than SOPA.


The correct pronunciation is 'twenty-twelve', not 'two thousand and twelve'.


Yeah, it's certainly noteworthy, but one is allowed to do that. What I wouldn't like, though, is if he were overexaggerating, but we can't check that.


Grimmy things happen there. They ask Doctors to lie.


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