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Star ratings systems have, in one form or another, made their way into most aspects of the internet and associated technology. They’re a quick and appealing way to visually gauge how others have rated something, and to likewise follow suit. They’re largely borne of the five-point Likert scale: Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree In this sense, the five-point Likert scale is dealing with discrete date. With each point representing an isolated and unique point on the rating scale. Being discrete data, in the strictest sense, there should not be an averaging of the data points. For example, if one person selected “Strongly Agree” and another person selected “Agree” then there would be a count of one data point in the “Strongly Agree” category and another count of one data point in the “Agree” category. An average, such as the mean, should not be used in this instance. It ...

Enter Off-Centre There’s probably the need for a warning here.  What follows will likely contain some ‘big’ words.  There’s probably also the need for a disclaimer.  What follows began with the intention of including no mathematics, whether that continues to hold by the end of the writing may be somewhat different.  So, given the presence of ‘big’ words and mathematics are reportedly inversely related to the number of readers, things are bound to go wrong. Anyone still there?  Anyone… If you are, it may be a long read.  To explain the concept of uthinki will not be something instant.  It’s about exploration.  Amongst other things, attempting to understand whether the crowd provides wisdom, or madness. Why the Jokers are Wild Is it serious, or not? That’s a resounding yes.  An emphatic no.  And also a maybe, just for good measure. As alluded to in the title, should the choice be left ...

In 1936 English economist John Maynard Keynes famously compared investing in the stockmarket to choosing the winner of a beauty contest. Keynes described a newspaper contest involving photographs of the faces of 100 pretty women. Readers were asked to pick six women and a prize was offered to the reader whose list of six guesses came closest to the most popular guesses of all of the other contestants. In a game like this the best strategy, Keynes said, isn’t to pick the faces that are your personal favourites. The best strategy is to select the faces you think others will think are the prettiest. Similarly in speculative markets, he said, you win not by picking the soundest investment, but by picking the investment that others, who are playing the same game, will soon bid up higher. Play uthinki Feature Image Credit: Paul Chin