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[quote=ianv said]It depends on how high the standard was elsewhere. If the standard was poor in the UK and internationals are doing badly against any number of random Continentals, Americans etc, than being in the top 25% is no big deal surely. You cant really just look at a national level, the Saudi Arabian snowboard champion is likely to be pretty crap in absolute terms.
Well there is that - I could probably have made the British team for ski orienteering (probably still could), but that certainly doesn't make me good at it!
So, I reckon to be good you need to be in the group above +2 Standard deviations from the global mean for whatever it is you do. Therefore, most people will never find anything they are really good at, above average maybe but that's all.
2 standard deviations above the mean means you'd only be better than 95.5% of the rest of the world. Seems a rather arbitrary figure to pluck out from nowhere!
I mean, there's 7 Billion people in the world now (so we're told), so that means if you're 2 standard deviations above the mean, you're in the top 315 Million at something in the world... 😕
And we've got people on here saying that unless you're in say the top 10 in the world at something that you can't consider yourself good at it! To be in the top 10 in the world would put you 7.44 Standard Deviations above the mean incidentally. To be 6 Standard Deviations above the mean (the level of quality aimed for by the likes of Toyota and Honda in their manufacturing processes) would only put you in the top 24,000 people in the world!
I am lucky enough to say I genuinely know 2 or 3 people that are in the top 10 or so in the world at whatever field it is they are involved with, so obviously they are exceptional in that respect. I can safely say that a 20 minute conversation with any of them, I would then pick up enough information off them to then know more about their subject than 99.99% of the rest of the world... Which would only put me in the top 700,000 in the world in that subject matter, and a "mere" 5.22 Standard Deviations above the mean. So still remarkably crap really!
My point is two fold...
Firstly, we judge ourselves against our peers infinitely more than we judge ourselves absolutely. Judged against my peers, I'm an expert cyclist. Judged absolutely, I'm nowhere!
Secondly, people use and manipulate statistics to lie. To say you're better than 99.9% of the world at something sounds like you're saying you're really good at it. But all you're saying is that you're in the top 7 million in the world! Statistics need to be represented correctly in order to be useful...
Oh, and incidentally, for the record... I'm merely "above average" at statistics... 😉
To be 6 Standard Deviations above the mean (the level of quality aimed for by the likes of Toyota and Honda in their manufacturing processes) would only put you in the top 24,000 people in the world!
You must have mixed this up. here is no way that they can make everything 6 standard deviations better than the mean. How could everything you make be better than 500,000,000 other things. Not even F1 engines are that rare are they
You might mean that 6 standard deviations are within tolerance. There is an informal 3 standard deviation standard in climbing. That mean that the load on the component is the mean failure minus 3 standard deviations. That mean that of every 1000 sold 997 meet the standard 3 would fail
Secondly, people use and manipulate statistics to lie. To say you're better than 99.9% of the world at something sounds like you're saying you're really good at it. But all you're saying is that you're in the top 7 million in the world! Statistics need to be represented correctly in order to be useful...
I just disagree, probably by factor 10 may be factor 100. I wrote a reference for a girl who got the top mark out of 100 students in Physics and the was 10th out of 260 in Maths. I rate both of these better than good. You 1 in a thousand is is really depressing. That would mean that in a primary school of 500 we would only have a 50:50 chance of a good student.
If i was in the top 10% of rock climbers back in the day I'd be happy and feel that was good
Its a perculalry British thread. I mean if good enough to represent your country isn't good then you are avarage? If even the top 0.1% aren't good what are they They aren't average are they. So what words do we use for the people who are better than average but still outside the top 0.01%
Its all subjective but this is my perspective
NB above good we have very good, excellent and exceptional at very least
Cycling on ice! Just back from Reykjavik. Paperhanging, climbing ice and messing about in the kitchen. Quite good and not being colour coded according to the mrs's critical eye.
Good with the ladies....and ironing.
Yes I'm single 8)
Stating the bleeding obvious, apparently.
I seem to be naturally quite good at shooting (won a medal at Bisley once), but don't enjoy shooting anywhere near as much as I do riding (on or off road). Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near as good at riding as I am shooting...............
People tell me I'm good at my job, but I just work harder to make sure I have it all covered.
I can make a nice cup of tea.......
The only thing I think I was ever really good at was motocross. I started at 4 and by the time I was 10 I was winning British schoolboy championships and competing in European championships, but my mum and dad didn't ever see it as being anything other than weekend fun so never pushed me. I guess back then it was hard to see how you could make a living out of it. As a result it slowly fizzled out and I'm basically just a good expert amateur rider. I've always believed that if I had really pursued it I could have been a British championship contender. Too late to ever find out now sadly.
Genuinely nothing. In the unlikely event that someone ever thought I was, I suppose that would make me a good fraud. But they won't!
laying logs.......
I mean, there's 7 Billion people in the world now (so we're told), so that means if you're 2 standard deviations above the mean, you're in the top 315 Million at something in the world...
How many activities are practiced by everyone in the world? It is pointless measuring position against 7bn when only say 1m (or less) people practice that activity.
Really?I'm merely "above average" at statistics...
Breathing.....yep I'm pretty good at that ...I can even do it in my sleep....
Pretty good at showing one of my bosses how to use a computer.
Though not very good at hiding my boiling rage when I have to do this.
Me: "It's only a simple ~"^*ing Spreadsheet!!!!"
It: "Ooo Aye, I should really go and do a course"
Me: "NO! It's only a simple ~"^*ing Spreadsheet!!!!"
It: "How did [i]you[/i] learn all this stuff then?"
Me: "By remembering what someone else has showed me, or figuring it out for myself. It's only a simple ~"^*ing Spreadsheet!!!!!!!"
Usually followed up by comments about me being a young fellow and learning all this at school. It is 2 years older than me, and we are both more than 40...
Grrrr....