The problem is that you don’t know how different people who take the survey make their choices. Some people who are in a relationship that’s shorten then 2 years will answer one of the other options. That makes the whole data set difficult to interpret because you don’t know a a particular person made their decision.
Alright full disclosure—if you had just said “You should probably have included a “show me the answers” option”, I would had agreed and moved on. But instead your tone of ~Bah, everything is ruined!~ I found quite jarring*, especially since I had already gained some useful and surprising information off of despite its limitations. This isn’t a particularly scientific poll for many reasons, I don’t know how to tease apart strategies that are popular with strategies that lead to long term success which is what the qualifier was for—if I figure out a way to do this some day, I’ll be more careful in its implementation.
I think that LW is about furthering high epistemic standards, especieally when it comes to applied rationality. Applied rationality is at least as important than the specific subject matter.
Additionally I think voicing this criticism this way increases the chances that people who read the criticising to future polls at higher standards.
The problem is that you don’t know how different people who take the survey make their choices. Some people who are in a relationship that’s shorten then 2 years will answer one of the other options. That makes the whole data set difficult to interpret because you don’t know a a particular person made their decision.
Alright full disclosure—if you had just said “You should probably have included a “show me the answers” option”, I would had agreed and moved on. But instead your tone of ~Bah, everything is ruined!~ I found quite jarring*, especially since I had already gained some useful and surprising information off of despite its limitations. This isn’t a particularly scientific poll for many reasons, I don’t know how to tease apart strategies that are popular with strategies that lead to long term success which is what the qualifier was for—if I figure out a way to do this some day, I’ll be more careful in its implementation.
*I’m not sure why, this LessWrong after all.
I think that LW is about furthering high epistemic standards, especieally when it comes to applied rationality. Applied rationality is at least as important than the specific subject matter.
Additionally I think voicing this criticism this way increases the chances that people who read the criticising to future polls at higher standards.