Found a new way to waste time: LikeBetter.com You view a series of pairs of photos, clicking each photo you prefer. Periodically the website tells you fascinating facts about yourself. At first it was freaking me out -- how did it know so much about me? Eee!
Then after I'd done it for a while, longer than I'd like to admit actually, it started making mistakes. Like telling me that I'm a guy, I'm the leader of my social circle, I'm not creative, and I don't have or want pets. Well, when the dogs wake me up at 6 am, I might concede that last one. But the others? Uncreative? Um, no. Leader of my social circle? Hell, I'm so socially inept I don't even have a social circle. And last time I checked, still female.
It made me feel strangely better when it started getting things wrong. I guess no one wants to think some free website has their number.
it's interesting (and seems counter-intuitive) that the information returned became LESS accurate as the data set increased
"You'd rather stay up late clicking on images than go to bed, even if you're tired." (Y).
Just kidding.
The thing was pretty good with my guesses. See list below (right up until I finally decided that sleep was better).
If you had the choice between a fast car that was unreliable, and a slow car that always runs, you'd choose the speedy car.
You are the type of person who rarely misplaces things . (N)
You communicate best one-on-one
You're the kind of person who thinks things through before taking action .
You live in a urban (city/town) environment.
You would describe yourself as fairly wealthy (interesting)
When it comes to politics, you're conservative (N!)
You're smart, but you think you are slightly less intelligent than the people you spend time with (um, no).
You're not vegetarian .
You like to plan things out in advance (hmm, I don't like the phrasing in the "N" but I'll stick pick "N")
You're a guy
You don't smoke
You enjoy sarcasm. (N)
You laugh at campy humor.
If given the choice between speaking to a large crowd and having a tooth pulled, you'd choose the speaking engagement .
You don't enjoy meeting lots of new people. (no)
You often listen to music
You often employ logic in your decisionmaking.
p.s. my friend Ken has an electronic 20 Questions toy that impressed me with its accuracy. I chose a porcupine as my subject, and it got it at ~question 19.
The thing that really impressed me about the program was its ability to get past my answers that might have been wrong or "I don't know". (For example, the toy might have asked me something like "bigger than a breadbox?" which I might well have gotten wrong for porcupine.)
Georg:I think maybe as the data set got bigger, it gets messier & not as easy to draw conclusions from. For instance if one of the pictures is from The Family Guy, well I hate The Family Guy so I will always choose the other picture, no matter what it is. Which might give it the wrong impression.
Phil: I got some of the same responses as you did, some I got the opposite response, and some didn't come up at all for me. It picked "slow reliable car" for me, which is correct, and "middle class" instead of wealthy, also correct. Also it told me that I have no interest in politics. Which was true a few years ago, but definitely not now!
On the smarts response, it told me that I think I'm more intelligent than the people around me. Actually I think I'm equally intelligent as those around me, but I decided that "Y" was less incorrect than "N" so I let it stand.