Show HN: Are You a Good Estimator?

(estimator.dylancastillo.co)

11 points | by dcastm 13 hours ago

4 comments

  • jmpavlec 11 hours ago
    Took it (didn't go too well score-wise).

    Would be nice to have the units for each question on top. Or in the input boxes themselves. I was on mobile and had to scroll down to see it. Mixing raw numbers and units of billions was confusing as well. There were definitely questions like the one about volume where I had no idea what a cubic mile really was conceptually (as opposed to a liter or something).

    Regardless, reading about the study and comparing my own results was interesting.

    I wonder if the inputs could be done using a slider given you are always selecting a range, that would be more intuitive.

    • dcastm 11 hours ago
      Makes sense! I like the slider idea, but not sure if it’d introduce some bias to the results.
      • piaste 57 minutes ago
        One quick improvement would be to style the number boxes to include decimal separators. For a few answers I was squinting to check if I had typed six or seven zeroes, for example.
  • kykat 10 hours ago
    I definitely messed up some units, particularly a million/billion. Two were really close to my estimates but still outside. One I could have gotten it right if I thinked a bit more.

    4/10 overall, good reminder that we always have to double check. So easy to be wrong even when giving outrageously wide estimates

  • harshalizee 9 hours ago
    Fun test. 4/10

    I never realized how absolutely massive a blue whale can be!

  • more_corn 11 hours ago
    If I say no and I’m wrong does that mean I’m right?