Michael Sippey › Likes

This is some of the best writing I've read on(and off)line in a long time....thanks for taking the time to share it. (and here's to hoping you continue to blog more: http://evhead.com/2008... - Adam Kazwell

Brilliant post... I loved this paragraph - Inspired, the remaining few days until the election went by more quickly and purpose overrode the pettiness of the local citizenry's attacks. I began to appreciate their fear, their yearning for control, their desperation for some input into their own outcomes. To the degree possible subject to the hypocrisy and myopia of my comfort, I sympathized. - Bindu Reddy

I appreciate all the kind words. Means a lot. - Christopher Sacca

The tears started flowing when I got to the hug. Thanks for an awesome post, one of the best I've read this year. - Robert Scoble

If you could have crawled into my head and pulled out my own jumble of thoughts and impressions working through the campaign, they would have read similarly to yours. Though I didn't travel, I live in a community with attitudes similar to Elko's, and received much of the same responses that you did. You have amazingly and beautifully summed up the emotion i've been unable to articulate for three months. I just know I am proud to be American again, and that we could and we did. - Karoli

such a lovely post. long. but lovely. xc - Charlie Robinson

"I began to appreciate their fear, their yearning for control, their desperation for some input into their own outcomes. " - Clare Dibble

I would imagine the money Obama made from Fannie Mae this year is more than what some of those folks make in a year. - ComicList

At a GM plant? Those are union jobs. I'm guessing the ones still with jobs do ok. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

Democrats are better for labourers. - timedalkat from twhirl

timedalkat, that is the long-held misconception. Democrats and unions keep people poor. That is how they keep control over them. Talk about the politics of fear... - Jim the Tolerable

in 80% of the Pareto principle examples people make, 20% are false. - directeur from NoiseRiver

Pareto is sooo on point and accurate... just gotta find the sweetspot: 80 truth / 20 false - discern and learn to be wise - Susan Beebe

80% of that top 80% of effects coming from 20% of that top 20% , and so 80% of 80% is 64%; 20% of 20% is 4% - "64-4 law“... - fiorano

Am I being paranoid or was I the impetus for this post? - AJ Kohn

No, it's lots of things AJ. Probably 90%. - Paul Buchheit

@Paul: Fair enough. - AJ Kohn

no one said there'd be math - ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ

decent margin of error really - Dan Rockwell from twhirl

Chris: like the one you just made up?! :*) - Susan Beebe

I spent much of my 20% time making up stories about how people use their 20% time. - Kevin Fox

Pareto principle work for 80% of things 20% of the time. :) - xero

damn! great commentary. - Miguel23

well I think it's the only way to come to definitive results on certain debates... the term might be just a neologism, but it effectively communicates the concept of the "wisdom of crowds" in a single word. - Nathan Chase

there is little wisdom in the mob and the crowd. our founders knew this. it is why we don't have a direct democracy and rather an electorate representative vote. the whole idea of web 2.0 is to fragment the mob... I would say it failed. Obama is the end result. - NoahDavidSimon

The backformation of the word from 'outsourcing' (itself quite orwellian) sort of tips one off about the bias of the word towards those 'using' the crowds in question. IMO It's a pretty accurate term once you acknowledge the bias. - Madsimian

The original "wisdom of the crowd," anecdote I heard had to do with a group of people each guessing how many beans were in a jar. No individual's guess came as close as did the average of all the guesses. One of the keys to this experiment in my mind is the fact that there was no information shared between individuals making guesses. It's a sort of proof that collaboration can lead to... more... - Kurtiss Hare from twhirl

@Kurtiss - Hard to believe NO individual came as close as the average. Especially since the average (assuming this is defined as "arithmetic mean") is skewed by wild outliers. - James Joyner

@James: Yeah, it was an anecdote--no idea how truthful it is. - Kurtiss Hare