What have you learned today?

[Voidus]

So I'm something of an autodidact particularly with regards to language, I wouldn't call myself a polyglot since I don't really speak anything other than English fluently but I know a handful of phrases in over a dozen languages and I can say 'hello' to people pretty much anywhere on the planet (Though I occasionally forget which is which so I may one day find myself in germany greeting people with Здраствуитэ )

I also have something of a sleeping problem, I rarely go to bed before about 3am regardless of when I wake up so I tend to have a bit of time at night when everyone else is asleep and not much to do other than go on 17th Shard, read scientific articles, surf wikipedia and try to learn random new things so I have a lot of random knowledge on a variety of topics although mostly centered around science and languages.

Anyway I was wondering if there were any other autodidacts on the Shard and if so, what have you learned today?

[Esaias he/him]

I learned what autodidact means..

[Voidus]

I learned what autodidact means..

Well that's always a plus, for those interested an autodidact is someone who is self-taught or has knowledge in a field but no formal training. 

I just learned that ancient greeks once considered it rude to speak with your hands outside of your clothing and how to use sine functions with emissive lighting in a material editor to create textures for games that steadily glow in a cool pulsing way.

[Guest]

Today I learned how much easier physics would have been if I had known about derivatives.

[Sera]

So I'm something of an autodidact particularly with regards to language, I wouldn't call myself a polyglot since I don't really speak anything other than English fluently but I know a handful of phrases in over a dozen languages and I can say 'hello' to people pretty much anywhere on the planet (Though I occasionally forget which is which so I may one day find myself in germany greeting people with Здраствуитэ )

 

There are people like you, who learn how to greet in multiple languages, and there are people like me, who learn how to cuss in multiple languages. :x

 

Hey, if you're curious about sine functions for emission, I think you'd enjoy learning how to apply Lambert's Cosines as a rule of thumb for brightness. Not only it's used in 3D (lambertian diffuse shaders), but it's quite useful in painting—yes, painting painting—because it describes the relationship between light and surface angle. That's the basis for depicting believable volume. I took years to fully figure this one out, haha.

__

 

Unfortunately I learned nothing with a broad application today, it's still early in the morning. I learned my cat only likes new scratchers, and that's why he suddenly stopped using his, favoring the living room rug instead...

 

If it counts, yesterday night I learned thyme's name in English, and also that despite being an evergreen Mediterranean~tropical plant it's cold hard.

[Voidus]

 

There are people like you, who learn how to greet in multiple languages, and there are people like me, who learn how to cuss in multiple languages. :x

 

Hey, if you're curious about sine functions for emission, I think you'd enjoy learning how to apply Lambert's Cosines as a rule of thumb for brightness. Not only it's used in 3D (lambertian diffuse shaders), but it's quite useful in painting—yes, painting painting—because it describes the relationship between light and surface angle. That's the basis for depicting believable volume. I took years to fully figure this one out, haha.

__

 

Unfortunately I learned nothing with a broad application today, it's still early in the morning. I learned my cat only likes new scratchers, and that's why he suddenly stopped using his, favoring the living room rug instead...

 

If it counts, yesterday night I learned thyme's name in English, and also that despite being an evergreen Mediterranean~tropical plant it's cold hard.

Technically I can cuss in a bunch of languages but unlike with phrases like greetings where I only say them within the context of that language single-word cusses or even phrases are something that I use completely out of context so when I get into a tirade I switch from speaking english to cussing in a different language every other word. So I know the words but not which language they're from most of the time and about half of them I've completely forgotten the literal meaning I just use them in my own way

Huh, cool so for spec maps and stuff? I'll look into it. I've figured out most of what I know about modelling and texturing from just messing around and learning things for myself so I'm not great on a lot of technical methods for material editing. 

[The Honor Spren she/her]

I just learned that ancient greeks once considered it rude to speak with your hands outside of your clothing

Well doesn't that sound familiar . . . *cough* safehand *cough cough*

I learned that sewing ribbons into a cloak isn't as hard as I thought it would be.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I learned that the scientific name for llama is "lama glama."

Seriously, it's true.

[Mestiv he/him]

I've learned how to use Linux terminal + EKG2 to chat on facebook without using the browser  my boss caught  me too many times, because the facebook page is too easy to spot from the distance, even if the window is pretty small... But now, HA HA!, I'm unstoppable! My facebook is indistinguishable from pieces of my legit work environment! 

[Voidus]

I've started learning a bit of German again using Duolingo after I got a challenge from someone IRL. Anyone else use it at all?

[Haelbarde he/him]

I've started learning a bit of German again using Duolingo after I got a challenge from someone IRL. Anyone else use it at all?

I started doing that once! As in German on Duolingo (as opposed to the other languages). I stopped after awhile though...

 

I learnt that I wrote 25k words over about 2 weeks while discussing stuff relating to a forum game...

[Voidus]

I started doing that once! As in German on Duolingo (as opposed to the other languages). I stopped after awhile though...

 

I learnt that I wrote 25k words over about 2 weeks while discussing stuff relating to a forum game...

Cool, it's my first time using it but I'm enjoying it so far, though I find the claim that I'm apparently 14% fluent a bit suspect since the extent of my German is basically limited to greetings and telling people that something is my hamburger.

[Curiosity he/him]

DIES IST MEINE WASSERMELONE! MEINE!

 

I learned that the Monty Hall problem is worse than I thought. I think it's only scientifically provable that switching is better. I can't work out a mathematical proof that works. Help! Unless sticking with your original choice is actually better somehow in spite of all I've heard?

Edited October 12, 2015 by Curiosity

[Voidus]

DIES IST MEINE WASSERMELONE! MEINE!

 

I learned that the Monty Hall problem is worse than I thought. I think it's only scientifically provable that switching is better. I can't work out a mathematical proof that works. Help! Unless sticking with your original choice is actually better somehow in spite of all I've heard?

That one took a while for me to wrap my head around when I first heard it, the trick is to remember that the host knows what's behind each door and that obviously he's not going to show you which door has a car behind it. We then examine both potential scenarios.

Scenario 1: You pick the door with the car behind it straight off the bat, this is a 1/3 chance. In this case the host can open either of the other two doors and it will reveal a goat.

Scenario 2: You pick a door with a goat behind it, this is a 2/3 chance and now if the host opens another door he can only possibly open one door, he can't show you what's behind your door because it would mean that you definitely switch, he can't show you the car door because then you'd definitely switch to that, he can only possibly open the second goat door.

So you have a 1/3 chance of picking the correct answer straight off but once he reveals the other incorrect answer you have a 2/3 chance of getting the car if you switch doors.

[Mestiv he/him]

DIES IST MEINE WASSERMELONE! MEINE!

 

I learned that the Monty Hall problem is worse than I thought. I think it's only scientifically provable that switching is better. I can't work out a mathematical proof that works. Help! Unless sticking with your original choice is actually better somehow in spite of all I've heard?

 

1. You have 3 boxes, one is the winner.

2. You pick randomly one box, there is 1/3 chance, that your box is the winner.

3. Monty Hall KNOWS which one is the winner, so he won't eliminate it, he's not allowed to. He eliminates a loosing box.

4. Now see, the chances that you picked the winner on the beginning are still 1/3. Monty Hall could eliminate one loosing box no matter which one you choose. So, remembering that probability of all options has to add up to 1, the chances that the car was in the other two boxes was 2/3.

5. What happened with those 66,6% percent of car being in one of the other boxes when Monty eliminates one box? Those 66,6% get squished into one box. 

6. Monty's actions couldn't affect chances of your success in the past, that's why after eliminating one box, the situation isn't changed to 50/50, but remains 33/66, as the chances that you were right on the beginning with 3 boxes couldn't change.

[ThirdGen]

I agonized over this.  Recently, in fact.  Here's the way it finally sank in to me:

 

The decision points are this:

1) The show puts the car behind one of the doors.

2) The player chooses a door.

3) Monty picks a wrong door to open.

4) The player decides whether to switch.

 

#1 and #2 are random.  Given a long enough series of players, #4 is effectively random as well.  The one that's not random is #3.

 

Monty cannot select either the door with the car or the door the player selected.  If the player chose the door with the car, Monty's choice is a 50/50 shot between the other two.  If the player didn't, there is only one door Monty can open.  If the player guessed right, Monty has a 50/50 shot to pick a door, and the player has a stay-and-win or switch-and-lose choice.  This only happens 1 in 3 times - the odds of the player guessing right the first time.  If the player guessed wrong, Monty has no choice and the player has a switch-and-win or stay-and-lose choice.

 

The player standing there on stage has no indication of which scenario occurred.  However, their guessing right only happens 1 time in 3.  So odds are, they're in the switch-and-win.

 

Edit: Oh, and this assumes that Monty always opens a door.  If Monty only opens a door some of the time, the player should probably assume psychological trickery and stay when he opens.  That's just my conjecture.

Edited October 12, 2015 by ThirdGen

[Haelbarde he/him]

So Player A chooses a door 1. Monty opens a door (#3), and behind it is a goat! Player A is offered the choice to switch. Player A urgently has to leave and is unable to give an answer. While they are waiting for Player B to appear, they remove the door Monty opened, because everyone knows there was a goat behind it. Player B turns up, and is presented with now two doors. Should Player B choose door #1 or #2?

 

I guess I think that's how people think it intuitively. But the knowledge gained makes the switch more likely.

 

If you want to test it yourself, open up Excel or Google Sheets. In the first column, put the title 'Prize location', and the 2nd column, 'Player Choice'. Then use the function '=RANDBETWEEN(1,3)' in both columns, and drag the formula down to as many attempts as you want (I tried both 1000 and 10000). What this does is choose a random number between 1 and 3. In the third column, put the formula '=IF(A2=B2,"Stay","Switch")'. What this is doing is comparing the two columns and working out if the player should switch door, or stay with their initial choice. If the numbers match, that means they chose the door with the car, and so they should stay. If they don't match, then then they chose a door with a goat behind it. Given that Monty will have opened the other door with a goat, then they should switch. Obviously they don't know what they have, so whether or not they should switch or not, but we can consider what they should do if they knew.  Then, in two other cells, put the formulas ' =COUNTIF($C$2:$C$10001,"Stay")' and '=COUNTIF($C$2:$C$10001,"Switch")' (these are for the case where you have 10000 rows of random numbers and comparisons). These will count up the number of times they should have Stayed with their initial choice, and the number of times they should have Switched from their initial choice. For the set of random numbers I have at the moment, it gives me the results 3387 in 10000 they should have stayed with their initial choice, and 6613 times in 10000 that they should have switched.

 

[Curiosity he/him]

Thank you all! I'm very surprised to get three responses. I've heard this explained several times before, but I was building probability trees and confusing myself in order to prove it to someone else, which I couldn't do this time around without building a spreadsheet and experimentally testing it. Thanks! 

 

I just learned that the the 17th Shard is really cool! Again.

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

I have learned that books and comics are deceptively heavy when boxing up for moving house, as they take up a remarkably small volume yet weigh so much when condensed into a small space. Go figure.

[Hood he/him]

While reading, Thinking Fast and Slow, learnt about priming. It is about how an idea, even if alluded to, affects the actions and thoughts of an individual.

 

Eg. If you tend to think old, you will act old (that's priming, in a layman's terms). Now the reverse is also true.

      If you act old, you will tend to think like an old person. 

 

This holds true for many things. Another example (from same book) :-

 

There was an experiment involving donation in charity. The experimenters had a "honesty box", in which you would put money into. Near it was a picture. It could be either of [a] eyes watching you  flowers. 

People were more likely to donate money, if the picture was of a pair of eyes watching them, rather than flowers. The difference was significant.

 

The author says that this is because people tend to adjust their behaviour whenever they thing that someone is watching them.

This gave me a hint of how systems like "God is watching you", or the dear leader is always watching you works. 

Edited October 12, 2015 by Hood

[Delightful]

TIL avocado sauce (guacamole??) goes quite nicely with pasta.

[Kobold King he/him]

Today I learned that Delightful is probably destined to slay me.

 

 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I learned that Bruce is a fatty. I was at work, so my mom was watching him. While she was distracted by an emergency, Bruce, who had finished his own dinner, turned and polished off Bruno's dinner and then Mollie's. 

 

Three dinners. 

 

For one tiny pug. 

 

And it's not like I feed him slop, which would sort of excuse his compulsive eating on the grounds that he wants something better. No, like the other pugs, he gets all-natural wet food out of a can with good ingredients. He's not starving, either. Between dinner at night and snacks during the day, he eats better than some college students. He just ate three dinners because he could.

[Delightful]

Today I learned that Delightful is probably destined to slay me.

Hmm.

Might keep you around a bit longer though. I find your presence.......entertaining.

[Haelbarde he/him]

I learned that Bruce is a fatty. I was at work, so my mom was watching him. While she was distracted by an emergency, Bruce, who had finished his own dinner, turned and polished off Bruno's dinner and then Mollie's. 

 

Three dinners. 

 

For one tiny pug. 

 

And it's not like I feed him slop, which would sort of excuse his compulsive eating on the grounds that he wants something better. No, like the other pugs, he gets all-natural wet food out of a can with good ingredients. He's not starving, either. Between dinner at night and snacks during the day, he eats better than some college students. He just ate three dinners because he could.

One of my cats is just like that.

 

And no, he was named Garfield before we found out how much he ate...

Edited October 15, 2015 by Haelbarde