Results from the Heinlein score game (1739 questionnaires returned) | Hacker News Reader

Results from the Heinlein score game (1739 questionnaires returned)

iannaccone.org

22 pointsianna21 comments

My impression is that people are overconfident in their ability to plan an invasion and under-confident in their ability to pitch manure. There are other examples, but in general there seems to be much less variation in results than there should be. Some of the things listed are very easy, some are very hard.

Give orders and take orders were the standouts for me. Nearly 95%! I chose no for both, since I can be unclear, and generally distrust authority.

I figure there's a bit of Dunning Kruger going on here, even amongst the very skewed sample that would be answering such a questionnaire.

Then again, I could just be in the bottom 5% and trying to justify it.

My thought process was: "Could I plan an invasion?" "Sure, how hard could it be?" pause clicks no.

I definitely think there's a lot of bias happening, but the results are definitely still interesting. Most non-baby related "hard skills" (butcher hog, con ship, build wall, set bone, etc) scored the absolute lowest.

I'd love to see a dataset from a different audience that is more used to working with their hands.

Anyone can plan an invasion. Planning a successful invasion may be a little trickier.

Anybody who isn't Hemophobic can butcher a hog. Successfully butchering a hog may be a little trickier.

I'd actually disagree with that, but I probably give the word "plan" a stricter definition than you.

But I've battle-tested my inability to plan an invasion in many RTS games. I know I can't do it. :P

If you have ever played Hearts of Iron, you could probably plan an invasion.

That said, I am sure most gamers who have played something like Red Alert could probably do a half-decent job.

Glad you someone mentioned HoI !! Definitely the right game on this matter.

RTS like Red Alert do not really help you to plan well. It's too deep into micro-management, there's hardly any strategic planning going on. Most of the time you just try to survive first, then build up your base, and build up your offensive forces. It's very entertaining but not very "rich". I always felt that Total Annihilation was way better in that sense: huge maps, lots of differents ways to attack, lots of important strategic choices before any confrontation even takes place. A good balance between a HoI type-of-game and a RTS like Red Alert.

I answered every question positively, because I thought in terms of 'if my life depended on that' or 'if there's no one else to do the job'. Surely, the outcome wouldn't be the best possible. However, it's realistic that all sane and non-disabled people at least have an idea what is involved in those tasks and can come up with some results.

Since the criteria was having done the task at least once, I am quite impressed with all those who checked yes for died gallantly and were still able to fill out the survey.

Actually the instructions allowed for being confident you could do it without further training. I agree that far too many people are confident in their ability to die gallantly, however.

> "far too many people are confident in their ability to die gallantly"

Ain't you heard? Dying is easy, comedy is hard. :D

But overconfidence aside, I have a harder time gauging acceptable competence levels in a test like this. Anyone who is not physically disabled is capable of shoveling manure. But if you don't know what you are doing you are gonna work way harder than you need to, take forever and wind up making a mess. Same with building a wall, just pile stuff up and brace as necessary, but the first rain or wind will probably knock it over.

Who are these people who can't butcher a hog but can plan an invasion?

In fact is there any 1 person in the world who could plan a modern invasion on their own?

I imagine the process of going to war involves large committees.

The question wasn't "plan an invasion of a modern nation in grand detail", any more than "design a building" necessarily involved sourcing sealant for skyscraper plumbing.

Or "program a computer" meant "layout transistors in a chip".

I'm not sure what else "plan an invasion" could mean?

Well, it could mean a lot of things. You've assumed it means something like the Iraq war, but there's no reason to assume that.

There's a settlement a mile to the east. They're hostile, uncompromising, know you're coming, and control resources that you need in order to survive.

What do you do?

>Who are these people who can't butcher a hog but can plan an invasion?

Me. I don't have the know-how or the fortitude to butcher a hog, but I play Starcraft regularly and often invade enemy bases successfully. Yes, that was my thought process.

I'm still not sure what "set a bone" means. Is that something like picking the bones out of the ashes after a cremation at a japanese funeral?

If you break a bone it needs setting so you dont have problems with it later.

Specifically, it means re-aligning the bone so that it can regrow together. I am pretty confident that I can set and splint a long bone, assuming that it isn't a horrendous compound fracture, so I said yes.

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