Overheard

“Oh boy! Another great opportunity for personal growth!”

“I’m not bitter about what happened to me as a child, and my mother was instrumental in keeping me from being so. ... She taught me to be grateful for my life regardless of what that entailed, and that’s directly related to the image of Christ on the cross and the example of sacrifice that he gave us. What she taught me is that the deliverance God offers you from pain is not no pain—it’s that the pain is actually a gift. What’s the option? God doesn’t really give you another choice.”

After over a decade of user testing, it is clear that the way we search the web is similar to the way we would search our home for valuables as it was burning to the ground. Frantically.

“We must shift the focus of companies back to the customer and away from shareholder value ... The shift necessitates a fundamental change in our prevailing theory of the firm… The current theory holds that the singular goal of the corporation should be shareholder value maximization. Instead, companies should place customers at the center of the firm and focus on delighting them, while earning an acceptable return for shareholders.”

“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.”

Comments

1. If I'm reading this correctly, the witness is equally reliable identifying green or blue cabs, so the witness's assertion that the cab was Blue is 80% likely to be true. But given the different sample sizes I'm probably oversimplifying and maybe Bayesian formulas should be brought into play.

2. Can you make a sundial with one of the sticks, with enough markings around the outside to show quarter hours? Of course, you'd need to track the movement of the sun for a day to get the hours, so that's probably wrong.

Posted by Christina
  at 11:01 pm on Nov. 27, 2006

1. Um, 80%?! That's what they tested right?

2. You didn't say you didn't have a watch, so time it? What would you want to burn rope for 15 minutes for anyway?

Posted by Kathryn
  at 7:06 pm on Dec. 9, 2006

light three ends simultaneously.

First rope with both ends lit burns completely that is 30 minutes; because if it took 60 min. for it to burn completely if only one end is lit.

When rope 1 is burnt up, light remaining unlit end of rope 2.

When it meets the burning portion on rope 2, 15 minutes will have passed.

Posted by Rik Warren
  at 8:02 am on May. 21, 2008

Yes, the rope question is answered right.

The cab question, the answer is: 41% lkely to be correct (so, more likely to be wrong). He'll be correct 12 out of 29 guesses. See: http://www.esmerel.com/circle/numeracy/accident.html

Posted by Travis Smith
  at 2:21 pm on May. 21, 2008

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