Roundup

[simont]

A bit of correlation analysis between the questions in my recent LJ poll said that, slightly to my surprise, the number of people who thought they were better at remembering to do things compared to the general standard they ascribe to other people was exactly the same as the number who thought they were worse. I was expecting this to be the sort of question where most people think they're above average (as is often claimed about driving), but failing that I'd at least have expected some sort of correlation. Gosh.

I managed to cut a finger last night on a plastic saucepan handle while washing up. I'm still not entirely sure how it happened. However, I've learned a new respect for my left ring finger; trying to avoid using it for the rest of the evening made computer use very awkward. It seems to do all the nearly-unconscious parts of my typing style.

One morning years ago I happened to wake up half an hour early and then realised it was election day, so I got up and went to vote on the basis that it was something useful to do with the extra half-hour in my day and then I wouldn't have to remember to do it later. My subconscious must have thought that was a good idea, because I've woken up early on election days more often than not since.

The polling station this morning handed me an EU ballot paper literally as long as my arm. Might have been nicer if they'd also provided voting booths containing tables big enough to hold it!

Comments

[mooism.livejournal.com]

There were 19 options on my ballot paper (London). It was thick enough that I thought they'd given me 2 ballot papers by mistake at first.

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

I find the results in your first paragraph surprising too. The reason i didn't fill out the poll was that I didn't think I could accurately self-report the frequency with which I remember small favours compared to everyone else, because my perception of it was bound to be skewed. I notice frustration towards others for being a bit flaky much more often than I chastise myself for being flaky. Nonetheless, I am often a bit flaky :-)

This comment may belong more on the OP, but I also wondered about the influence of the balance of favours. If part of the small errand you mention involves reciprocating or responding to a favour from the other person, then that must have an influence. For example, if I offer to lend somebody something and then space out on it, then it's somewhere between acceptable and annoying for them to send me an email reminding me to bring it next time we meet. But if I have borrowed somebody's book, and then they ask for it back, it is annoying of me to forget to do so, because I'm in their debt, however mildly. What the etiquette of them emailing me to remind me to bring it is, though, I'm not sure.

My ballot paper was almost as long as my leg, but that's what you get for being a short-legged person living in London. I had to hold it up against the wall of the polling booth to see all the options.

[simont]

I didn't think I could accurately self-report the frequency with which I remember small favours compared to everyone else, because my perception of it was bound to be skewed.

Oh, I'm sure of it. I was at least partially interested in people's possibly inaccurate self-perceptions. (If I'd wanted objectively accurate data, an LJ poll is not how I'd have gone about getting it! :-)

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

Somewhat tangentially but still related, fanf pointed out this article (http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf) (pdf) on twitter, which argues that incompetent people are less aware of their own incompetence than capable people.

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

That is to say, fanf used Twitter to link to it - the article itself is considerably more than 140 characters.

[fanf]

I was reminded of it on bofhnet and realised I had never saved the link. A classic paper.

Being a short legged person living in London

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Also a good sniff of everybody's armpits on the tube, I noticed. (My legs are not particularly short but there always seems to be an influx of massive tall people around Covent Garden.)

Re: Being a short legged person living in London

[hilarityallen.livejournal.com]

This is what happens to short people *all the time*. It's one of the reasons I don't like London very much. (Oddly enough my experience of other city's tubes/similar haven't been nearly so overcrowded, though Paris was definitely hotter.)

[gjm11.livejournal.com]

Obviously your friends are exceptionally rational and well-calibrated.