Twan's List

I’ve recently discovered the usefulness of Twitter. I used to think it was silly, but at the Lightning in a Bottle music and arts festival, I found it to be very beneficial.

LIB had been constantly updating their Twitter feed, letting you know who was currently on what stage, and other up-to-the-minute happenings throughout the weekend event. Very useful indeed.

Follow Twan’s Twitter Feed(s)

Now you can follow me on Twitter, too. There are two options. Feel free to go for them both.

The first is mainly a companion to Twan’s email list and this blog:

“TwansList” Twitter Feed

http://twitter.com/twanslist

The 2nd is geared toward my random thoughts and simulated brilliance:

“the_real_Twan” Twitter Feed

http://twitter.com/the_real_Twan

http://lists.electric-loft.org/mailman/listinfo/twanslist

Over the years, I’ve added and dropped various personal email addresses, as have many people in this community. As such, there are folks who used to be on this list who are no longer here (though I suspect that they’d still like to be). Please forward the following URL to your friends who you think might benefit from receiving these messages from me from time to time. They can subscribe at the following URL (or write to me directly and I’ll sign them up):

* http://lists.electric-loft.org/mailman/listinfo/twanslist

You might find the following study fascinating. It explains a lot. I found it out of the blue on the Wikipedia.

Dunning-Kruger Effect

The Dunning-Kruger effect is the phenomenon whereby people who have little knowledge systematically think that they know more than others who have much more knowledge.

The phenomenon was demonstrated in a series of experiments performed by Justin Kruger and David Dunning, then both of Cornell University. Their results were published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in December 1999.

Kruger and Dunning noted a number of previous studies which tend to suggest that in skills as diverse as reading comprehension, operating a motor vehicle, and playing chess or tennis, that “ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge” (as Charles Darwin put it). They hypothesized that with a typical skill which humans may possess in greater or lesser degree:

1. incompetent individuals tend to overestimate their own level of skill,
2. incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others,
3. incompetent individuals fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy,
4. if they can be trained to substantially improve their own skill level, these individuals can recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill.

They set out to test these hypotheses on human subjects consisting of Cornell undergraduates who were registered in various psychology courses.

In a series of studies, Kruger and Dunning examined self-assessment of logical reasoning skills, grammatical skills and humor. After being shown their test score, the subjects were again asked to estimate their own rank whereupon the competent group accurately estimated their rank, while the incompetent group still overestimated their own rank. As Dunning and Kruger noted:

Across 4 studies, participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd.

Dunning and Kruger

Meanwhile, people with true knowledge tended to underestimate their competence.

A followup study suggests that grossly incompetent students improve both their skill level and their ability to estimate their class rank only after extensive tutoring in the skills they had previously lacked.

Iggy Pop’s 60th Birthday: Saturday April 21, 2007

Help create the longest birthday card in the world. Visit Iggy and the Stooges website and post a greeting for Iggy.

A message from Mike Watt (currently on tour with Iggy):

hey people,

send iggy your own birthday wishes here:

and the tour diary I’ve chimped for this one so far is at:

Mike Watt

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and (though it may not be politically correct to say so…) Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

Hmmmm…
… wasn’t ‘taxation without representation’ one of the original complaints?