We want to get 80%-85% of predictions right, not 100%. Or else we calibrated our estimates in the wrong way.
Nate SilverRead
We're not that much smarter than we used to be, even though we have much more information - and that means the real skill now is learning how to pick out the useful information from all this noise.
Interpretation
Despite having access to more information, our ability to discern useful knowledge has become the essential skill.
This quote by Nate Silver emphasizes that the increase in available information does not directly correlate with intelligence. Instead, the real challenge in the modern world is to sift through the overwhelming amount of data and identify what is genuinely valuable and applicable. In a society flooded with information, critical thinking and discernment are more crucial than ever.
In practice
In a presentation about effective data analysis.
We want to get 80%-85% of predictions right, not 100%. Or else we calibrated our estimates in the wrong way.
A lot of news is just entertainment masquerading as news.
Racism is predictable. It's predicted by interaction or lack thereof with people unlike you, people of other races.
One of the pervasive risks that we face in the information age, as I wrote in the introduction, is that even if the amount of knowledge in the world is increasing, the gap between what we know and what we think we know may be widening.
A lot of journalism wants to have what they call objectivity without them having a commitment to pursuing the truth, but that doesn't work. Objectivity requires belief in and a commitment toward pursuing the truth - having an object outside of our personal point of view.
The quest for certainty in forecasting outcomes can be the enemy of progress.
It is a far worthier thing to read by the light of experience than to adorn oneself with the labors of others.
God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.
The real magic wand is the child's own mind.
Never let life's hardships disturb you. No one can avoid problems, not even saints or sages.
People who are not enjoying their lives in the present have lust for life in the future. Lust for life is always in the future. It is a postponement. They are saying, 'We cannot enjoy today so we will enjoy tomorrow.' They are saying, 'Right this moment we cannot celebrate, so let there be a tomorrow so that we can celebrate.'
I just don't think of age and time in respect of years. I have too much experience of people in their seventies who are vigorous and useful and people who are thirty-five who are in lousy physical shape and can't think straight. I don't think age has that much to do with it.
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