Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

If a park ranger said "I looked over the first 2% of the park and concluded there's no mountain lions" - that is, made an assessment on the whole from inspection of a narrow segment - I don't think I would take his word on the matter. If OP had more experience to support his statement, he should have included it, rather than writing a shallow, one-sentence dismissal.


I think the recently popular way of saying "I looked over 2% and assumed it generalizes" these days is to call the thing ergodic.

Which of course the blog article is not, but then at least the complaint wouldn't sound so obviously shallow.


That's great, I'm definitely going to roll that into my vocabulary.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: