56 sats \ 1 reply \ @south_korea_ln 29 Mar
I had observed something similar back at university. I had 30 questions to prepare for an exam. I had numbered them 1 to 30 on a piece of paper. Each time, I asked friends to pick a random number to tell me which question to focus on next.
All the odd numbers came out first before an even number popped up.
Somehow, even numbers don't feel random. Ever since, I try to give an even number as answer when someone asks for a random number. By doing so, I paradoxically prove yet again @davidw's comment above, humans are unable to act truly random.
Incidentally, this is also how fabricated data can be uncovered. By checking if certain data follows the (bi)normal, exponential, etc... distributions typical for certain kinds of data, it is very easy to prove that some data was fabricated.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidw 29 Mar
I’ve noticed it in myself too. Incredible how people actively avoid 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 as they’re all deemed not random, choosing from 1-100.
And variations containing 7 are very common, given it’s a ‘lucky’ number for many. We’re just all too predictable sometimes.
Scary to think if you combine this logic with password generation. Auth is so incredibly insecure.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidw 28 Mar
Don’t do hooman ‘random’ number generation.
Computers may not be perfect, but as this video shows… we are even worse at it.
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7 sats \ 0 replies \ @1GLENCoop 30 Mar
I wanted to zap you a random number (between 1 and 100) of sats for posting this, so I zapped you 37 sats.
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