I feel like it is a good idea to measure specifics, but that there are way too many questions here. Especially if, as you say, there are going to be other checklists for different skills. I couldn’t even get through reading it, without applying serious effort.
I would feel overwhelmed if I was asked to actually ANSWER all of those questions. Even if I started out putting serious thought and effort into my answers, by the end I think that I would just be flying through them, answering anything without thinking about it, just to get it done. This means that the accuracy of the answers will go down.
My suggestion is to limit it to about 5 questions that you think give you the best estimation of what you are trying to measure (curiousity). For example, you can probably cut out number 15 (especially as a yes/no question); Anyone who says they NEVER call a topic boring or confusing, etc, is probably lying either to themselves or you. (I would guess that everyone finds SOME topic boring)
If it is short enough that people can maintain attention and effort throughout the whole survey, then you will end up with more accurate, thoughtful, and useful answers. You can still keep the longform set of questions as a useful guide for people to use personally.
If you DON’T make it any shorter, than I would say you should definitely break the filling-out process into many smaller chunks (i.e. do 5 before each meal or something.)
I am sure there are people on here that think that filling out such a survey is easy for them, and therefore should be easy for everyone else, but unless you are only sending it to hardcore rationalists and LessWrongians, I would say the majority of the population would find it difficultly long.
Good feedback, I went through the questions and had no such overwhelmed experience. I enjoyed it, actually, it reminded me of some of the areas where I’ve improved and some where I haven’t but want to. I agree with your puzzlingness about the absolutes in some of these questions.
Also maybe a final question for fun: did these questions cause you to think and wonder what the answer is or did you enter a answer-for-the-sake-of-completing-the-survey mode? :)
I feel like it is a good idea to measure specifics, but that there are way too many questions here. Especially if, as you say, there are going to be other checklists for different skills. I couldn’t even get through reading it, without applying serious effort.
I would feel overwhelmed if I was asked to actually ANSWER all of those questions. Even if I started out putting serious thought and effort into my answers, by the end I think that I would just be flying through them, answering anything without thinking about it, just to get it done. This means that the accuracy of the answers will go down.
My suggestion is to limit it to about 5 questions that you think give you the best estimation of what you are trying to measure (curiousity). For example, you can probably cut out number 15 (especially as a yes/no question); Anyone who says they NEVER call a topic boring or confusing, etc, is probably lying either to themselves or you. (I would guess that everyone finds SOME topic boring)
If it is short enough that people can maintain attention and effort throughout the whole survey, then you will end up with more accurate, thoughtful, and useful answers. You can still keep the longform set of questions as a useful guide for people to use personally.
If you DON’T make it any shorter, than I would say you should definitely break the filling-out process into many smaller chunks (i.e. do 5 before each meal or something.)
I am sure there are people on here that think that filling out such a survey is easy for them, and therefore should be easy for everyone else, but unless you are only sending it to hardcore rationalists and LessWrongians, I would say the majority of the population would find it difficultly long.
Good feedback, I went through the questions and had no such overwhelmed experience. I enjoyed it, actually, it reminded me of some of the areas where I’ve improved and some where I haven’t but want to. I agree with your puzzlingness about the absolutes in some of these questions.
Also maybe a final question for fun: did these questions cause you to think and wonder what the answer is or did you enter a answer-for-the-sake-of-completing-the-survey mode? :)