{"id":248,"date":"2021-10-04T09:23:25","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T09:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/?p=248"},"modified":"2021-10-04T09:42:20","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T09:42:20","slug":"the-relationship-between-the-validity-of-natural-language-expressions-and-the-statistical-concepts-of-accuracy-and-precision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2021\/10\/04\/the-relationship-between-the-validity-of-natural-language-expressions-and-the-statistical-concepts-of-accuracy-and-precision\/","title":{"rendered":"The relationship between the Validity of Natural Language Expressions and the Statistical Concepts of Accuracy and Precision"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As you may be aware, I recently started reading a book that was quite the bestseller a few years ago (see e.g. my initial reaction to the quote: “The problem is that the pervasiveness of technology and mass marketing is screwing up a lot of people\u2019s expectations for themselves: the inundation of the exceptional makes people feel worse about themselves, makes them feel that they need to be more extreme, more radical, and more self assured to get noticed or even matter<\/a>“).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, I was very impressed that Mark Manson was apparently able to convey quite complex concepts in a very simple, colloquial language. I am now in the midst of going through the text with a more “fine-toothed comb”, to see whether I still find the ideas to be as impressive as the first time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spoiler alert: Not quite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet at the same time I am acutely experiencing a phenomenon that both enabled this to become such a runaway bestseller, but also is to some degree one of its primary pitfalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I mentioned in the previous (“initial”) review, Mark is prone to making bold<\/strong> statements — and I might also add: in a very simple<\/em> language, with little sophistication<\/em> in his mode of expression. He begins by drawing a sketch of a drunkard literary genious — Charles Bukowski. We thereby are confronted with a wanton spirit, flailing about and occasionally hitting a nail on the head (I myself have not read much Bukowski, perhaps little bits and pieces, mainly short quotes noted in passing by some person apparently not secure enough to use their own words).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we map out the validity of linguistic expressions, we may think of that as a scatter plot, with each expression located somewhere along axes measuring accuracy and precision (at least theoretically<\/em> — I am not saying this might be simple or easy to measure). I think we can all agree that our immediate gut reaction would be to aim for high degrees of both accuracy and precision. See, for comparison, these images (source: “Accuracy and precision – Wikipedia<\/a>“):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
High accuracy, Low precision<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
High precision, Low accuracy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The point I particularly notice is what happens when our linguistic expressions are imprecise: In such cases, there may still be sporadic occasions of arguments that seem valid — for example, an expression that in a particular context seems to hit the nail on the head … but which, in a different context may appear completely baseless and untrue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this vein, making bold<\/strong> statements in a muddy<\/em> or colloquial<\/em> language seems to be less a work of art than making exact<\/strong> statements in a meticulous<\/em> or scientifically explicit<\/em> language. Although the former may seem easier to grasp<\/strong><\/em>, the latter appear more reliable<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, I will continue to withhold judgement on Mark Manson’s words. I remain somewhat mesmerized, but unreliably so. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you may be aware, I recently started reading a book that was quite the bestseller a few years ago (see e.g. my initial reaction to the quote: “The problem is that the pervasiveness of technology and mass marketing is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[313],"tags":[766,767,187,188,21,22,769,768,87,86,300,301,85,765],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w79D-40","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":158,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2019\/07\/09\/re-on-bullshit\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":0},"title":"RE: On Bullshit","author":"nmw","date":"July 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend of mine recently mentioned he has back-ordered \u201cOn Bullshit\u201d (by Harry Frankfurt) and I thought \u201coh neat \u2013 maybe I can borrow it sometime for a day or two\u201d... but then I realized something. Bullshit is not rare or special or in any way particular. It is widespread.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2016\/07\/23\/anti-dis-establishment-arian-ism-antidisintermediation\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":1},"title":"Anti-Dis-Establishment-Arian-Ism + AntiDisInterMediaTion","author":"nmw","date":"July 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In this post, I plan to give you a small insight into some of the marketing \/ branding ideas I developed for this blog. One of the BIG IDEA moments behind \u201eremediary\u201c is simply that antidisintermediation is nothing other than remediation (and as that is in a rather oblique way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2016\/12\/30\/the-rationality-of-uncertainty\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":2},"title":"The Rationality of Uncertainty","author":"nmw","date":"December 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was learning science in high school, I was mesmerized by the notion that scientific facts were true, myths were false, and there were still things that needed to be \u201efigured out\u201c. I was very impressed by the way computers were all about 1's and 0's (it wasn't until\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/dontknow.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/dontknow.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/dontknow.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/dontknow.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2016\/12\/18\/the-rationality-of-literacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":3},"title":"The Rationality of Literacy","author":"nmw","date":"December 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past couple months, I have worked on developing a mission statement for one of my overarching goals \u2013 something like a \u201elife goal\u201c. Initial attempts were quite abstract, and I was greatly helped by the very considerate feedback of friends. In the intervening weeks since those first trials,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":234,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2021\/02\/11\/in-what-we-trust\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":4},"title":"In What We Trust","author":"nmw","date":"February 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"You may recall a post I made a few months ago .. in which I mentioned that \u201cI am not at all proud of the species I apparently belong to\u201d (\u201cI understand that this is very important to you\u201d). Another way of putting this idea is that I have little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2016\/10\/15\/the-rationality-of-intimacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":5},"title":"The Rationality of Intimacy","author":"nmw","date":"October 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I can imagine many people might think the title of this post means it will be all about love, sex and such. Well, not exactly. It's about relationships \u2013 but not merely limited to the exclusive kind of relationship two lovers who might be married might have. It also isn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions\/251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}