Matt Parker
speaker
278 appearances
8 recordings
1 series
first heard Oct 2010
last heard 8 Jul
Matt Parker’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
However, since then, research has continued.
The method that Dr. Bunk described, the one over E, that is the method you use...
if your goal is to get the best person possible in your range of options, but you don't care what you get if you don't get them.
So it's all or nothing.
The method I described is the solution to, if you tweak the problem slightly to B, I want to get the best person on average.
And so you go, look, I'd love the best person, but if I don't get the best person, I'm pretty happy with the second best.
As long as I get the best person on average,
And so instead of assigning 100% to the best person and zero to everyone else, you assign them weighted values on how good they are.
And so Dr. Bunk is completely correct.
For that particular situation, if we were living half a century ago, that would be the best solution, but things have moved on.
I mean, these are very valid concerns and ones you should probably not broadcast on radio.
But there is a mathematical approach you could have taken.
And the problem you were faced, in fact, we're all faced with, is when you're looking for a life partner, as you're interviewing people, or I believe dating is what it's commonly called.
If you meet a candidate and you assess their qualities and then you reject them, later on it's very hard to go back and say, look, I've changed my mind.
It turns out you were the best I'm ever going to do.
But on the flip side, if you settle down with someone straight away, you have no idea what the general quality of possible candidates was.
So you're faced with a problem.
You've got to interview or survey a certain number of possible candidates and reject them to get a sense of the quality.
But you don't want to do that for too many or you may pass by the best option.
And so the question is, how many people do you reject to get a sense of the standard?
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