Discussion
For the best part of 15 years. I've had a capcha on my phone alarm. This is because I seem very good at turning alarms off in my sleep. Because I can still hit snooze. I will often just keep hitting snooze long after I got up. This often results in the alarm going off when I'm with others. Many a time it handed my phone to a friend or colleague and said "can you turn off my alarm please?" Then usually solve the first puzzle then swear and hand me the phone. Back for the 2nd and 3rd.
But...
1/n
@quixoticgeek Somewhat beside the point but how did you get a captcha on your phone alarm, please? (I'm reminded of the friend who could get out of bed, log in, su -, kill the alarm process, log out, and return to sleep... without consciously remembering it when he did wake up).
@denisbloodnok it's part of the sleep tracking app I use
@quixoticgeek I’d worked the answer out before I noticed it was multiple choice. Generally it seems quicker to just do the damned calculation, but mileage may vary
@quixoticgeek My alarm makes me do math, too! I feel like getting those gears turning right away helps me wake up quickly. I very rarely shut off my alarm and go back to sleep
What i find interesting is the approaches people make to solve the problem. Most people will actually try and solve the maths in their head. "6x8 is 48, plus 4 is 52, minus 12 is 40". And that's an entirely legitimate way to do things. Not exactly pleasant while an alarm is going off. It works. However for most instances of this captcha it's not actually necessary to do the whole sum. Or even be accurate. In this case knowing 6x8 is forty something, is enough..
2/n
@quixoticgeek oh, fascinating. I have to type in the digits for mine. I just do 2-3 digit sums but it's enough I can't do it entirely asleep.
...to be able to select the 40 option, 6x8 is not enough to get close to any of the others.
Great. So why am I tooting about this ? Cos it's a useful skill to be able to look at a number and work out if it's realistic. I've rooted about this before in this thread: https://social.v.st/@quixoticgeek/111426627418152811
When shown a stat, being able to get a ball park number for reality checking is a crucial skill in our modern age. As well as the thread on shipping emissions. I've also used similar ideas to...
3/n
@quixoticgeek I'd like to think that knowing how to use a sliderule helps with this sort of estimation, but I still frequently mess up the exponent when doing long series of operations in big math problems.
... Inspire threads on AI power consumption and emissions.
I consider it a basic part of technical literacy. I wish more people understand how to look at numbers and sums and just judge plausibility quickly and easily. And it turns out, my alarm clock has been inadvertently helping me train that skill while not awake and pre caffeination...
4/4
@quixoticgeek The book “Street-Fighting Mathematics: The Art of Educated Guessing and Opportunistic Problem Solving” by Sanjoy Mahajan can be had as a free PDF from MIT Press Direct, https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5339/Street-Fighting-MathematicsThe-Art-of-Educated
Or as reading material to accompany the Street-Fighting Mathematics open courseware course, https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-098-street-fighting-mathematics-january-iap-2008/
@quixoticgeek Definitely crucial skill these days. Treat all stats with initial suspicion - especially if they seem to confirm something you already believe.
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