Poll: Compare Amongst Yourselves

[thefourthvine]

makesmewannadie is visiting me, and we got to talking, as we often do. (Okay. Full disclosure: the actual challenge would be making us shut the fuck up.) And one thing we talked about reminded me of a poll I'd considered posting lo these many moons ago, to test a hypothesis that I can't very well tell you beforehand. (Bias is death to informal and statistically skewed LJ polls, my friends.)

So, first, let me just say: hey, it'd be cool if you'd take this poll. I would love you and stuff.

Second - when I say "your friends list," I mean the portion of your friends list that you read regularly - your default reading filter, if you have one, or the whole list if that's how you read. (If you don't read your friends list at all, this poll is not going to be a good fit for you.) My point is, I want you to consider the people you know the best. (Which is not to say you necessarily know them well, of course.) And when I say "the average," I mean your own personally assessed average of this trait over your friends list.

And, seriously, there are no bad answers here. I'm only wondering where you fit into your own mental picture of your friends list for these particular variables. I know you may not have great data for all these questions; just give me your first reaction, and I will of course love you forever.

ETA: Please don't go back to change your answers after you've finished the poll and seen the results! (Unless you think of something you want to add to the text box, or you've decided shoes are more important than almost-cock. Those questions are weighty and take long consideration; I understand that.)



[Poll #931955]

Comments

[foreverdirt.livejournal.com]

Heeh, this was fun! I do that thing where I only tend to compare myself to people I perceive to be better than me in that area, so it was kind of calming to compare myself with a whole bunch of disparate people I know and like, rather than just the half dozen who produce epic, hand-illustrated stories in seven languages while studying to be doctors and volunteering in orphanages.

(As a mathematician I know puts it, he is, of course, the worst mathematician in the world -- those other people who are worse than him at maths? Terribly nice people, of course, but not what you'd call mathematicians, exactly.)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

(Have I mentioned to you lately that I love that icon? Because I do. <3!)

I do that thing where I only tend to compare myself to people I perceive to be better than me in that area, so it was kind of calming to compare myself with a whole bunch of disparate people I know and like, rather than just the half dozen who produce epic, hand-illustrated stories in seven languages while studying to be doctors and volunteering in orphanages.

I agree. Although I was kind of surprised at some of my own responses. (And, you know, I made the poll - you'd think I'd at least know what to expect from my own answers. But I didn't, not in every case.)

As a mathematician I know puts it, he is, of course, the worst mathematician in the world -- those other people who are worse than him at maths? Terribly nice people, of course, but not what you'd call mathematicians, exactly.

This is a standard feature of mathematicians everywhere. They will also all tell you that they are, at best, mediocre at math. (Because, of course, they know precisely how much they don't know.) And very often the best ones will insist they aren't actually mathematicians at all.

I love numbers, but I love mathematicians more.

[lowellboyslash.livejournal.com]

Howdy. I came over here from foreverdirt's journal to fill out your poll. I'm not a mathematician, but I like to think medievalists are decent folk too.