#and had a great big ''who's ready to get cancelled for arguing that magic isn't real'' diversion attached

[unopenablebox]

look. most people on tumblr, like most people everywhere, are just kind of innumerate, at least in slightly unexpected cases theyre asked to discuss on polls. they can't demonstrate an understanding of probability and they also don't understand compound interest. this is bad, but we can't fix it by explaining on the polls at length why they are wrong, because people on tumblr, in a specific manner but also still pretty much like people everywhere, think you are a fun-ruining evil stemlord who automatically loses the argument and should be put to death as the oppressor if you try to explain math to them

#i have noted those of you who are vexed by the interest one but acted like people were being dickhead killjoys about the probability one #and may i just say: yeah it's actually very frustrating isn't it. you can sort of see why i was pissy about it previously. #sorry you're now getting got. as we all will be got. in time. #it does also make sense to me that not everyone would respond to both because the probability one was only implicitly a math question #and had a great big ''who's ready to get cancelled for arguing that magic isn't real'' diversion attached #which. alters one's instincts. in various directions. #box opener #and conversely i actually found the interest thing mildly unintuitive until after i'd sat down with a calculator and contemplated what i #know about interest rates. so like. if you're not going to do that on a tumblr poll. and you don't think a lot about orders of magnitude #maybe you just say whatever sounds plausible and never think about it again #(until the hideous stemlords emerge forcing you to double down on the intrinsic moral rectitude of daily payments of course. but that #is not central to the point.)