Not necessarily the case... I worked 20 miles from home - too far to cycle every day, 3+ hours by public transport. A car was necessary. When I bought my first house, you could see a way clear to paying off the mortgage in a reasonable length of time. Sure, some commitment, but set that against much cheaper than rent over the time. I bought a lot on credit in the 70s when inflation was higher than hire purchase interest rates so it just made fiscal sense to borrow not save. Somewhat different now of course - especially for houses. A European model of much more renting, but with security, is more sensible in many ways.
Gold standard went away here in 71 few years after the texas single magic bullet was invented.
Being a magazine collector for Vintage Car adds.
Credit Card adds blossomed around same time in mid 70's
In 85 I was out training for my upcoming velo/camping trip across France when a young guy came up alongside on his bike. He worked in computing and his round trip to work was about 45 miles. He only used his car if it was really bad weather. Buying a house - I could have bought a small house for cash in 75 (the market crashed in 73/4) but I was into travelling and other things, so didn't. Did you really need to buy or was it just 'I want' ?. In 74 I took 'time out' and divested myself of everything I didn't 'need' - no TV, no newspapers, no eating out, the only exception was buying LPs, I was using music as therapy. I'm glad I did as I still have those LPs which I really cared for. It was easy to see what direction my country was going in and I didn't like it. Made the wrong decision in moving to another European country, too small, no real countryside to stretch out into, should have gone to NZ/OZ or western Canada. Came home and got entangled, life can do that. Finally managed to leave in 2001. Spain was not our first choice, the working people are great but corruption is bad, left and finally living somewhere we feel comfortable. Best I don't say what I feel about the UK it will upset a lot of UKers who refuse to see reality and what is coming down the road.
White Dragon is bang on. My cousin's daughter is adventurous - went travelling through Asia, got a good degree at Edinburgh Uni. Did post graduate in Northern Ireland, which she liked a lot. Went travelling through the South/South West USA and in Arizona worked on a ranch (she's a horse lover) which was so far out it had no I/net connection - she couldn't handle this and left early. If the i/net went down across the world there's a whole generation that would be in danger of having a nervous breakdown. The reality is - there are two things you need, one just to survive - clean drinking water, you can live for some time without food but not long without water. The other is electricity - if you want a modern life. So many people have no idea about this essential commodity. Across this planet Big Brother wears many different coloured shirts but they are all Big Brother. If the peasants get out of control all he has to do is switch of the juice. Intellect and intelligence are not the same. There was a really good Jazz band in Brighton and the lines from one of their songs is bang on - if you really think your free - you watch too much TV.
The song that hits home the most IMO is Rush 2112 (Temples of the Syrinx). “Our great computers fill the hallowed halls.” Absolutely true. Then the rest of it basically says “We control the media, therefore we control YOU”. Check. They knew about the dangers of Google and Facebook back THEN.
All this buy buy buy on credit IS a TRAP. They know it. I bought a place I could pay off in 10 years and stuck to that plan. And only put anything on plastic that could comfortably be paid off every month. When the CC bill got noticeable, cut it off completely for a few months. Then order something from PE or Mouser again. And after my last lump sum payment to the mortgage company, and only after, did my investment portfolio take off. And take off it did. In 2008! Paid it off right ahead of the crash, while all my colleagues watched their stocks drop and mortgages go underwater… at the same time. They all said I was crazy paying it off. Till the unthinkable happened.
Isn't "Big Money" on that album too?
"Big Money Goes Around the World
Big Money's Got No Soul"
Spot on.
"Big Money Goes Around the World
Big Money's Got No Soul"
Spot on.
Much later album. It was already obvious to everyone by then, and they were starting to invent what would become the internet so it want just science fiction anymore.
Many years ago (~ age 40) I took their entrance test in order see if I could meet people who were interested in the same kinds of things that interest me. The test consisted of two standard IQ tests, Cattell, and CTMM. A passing score on either test was grounds for admission. Both IQ numbers and percentiles were sent in a follow-up letter. I passed both, and joined up. Was appalled at the people I found in that organization. They were all basically aimless losers with high IQs who liked to play board games, card games, and work logic puzzles, but never made anything of their lives. The LA chapter also had a monthly newsletter. It typically contained complaints about people showing up at events at someone's house to play games. Some members were criticized for not bringing any food, and then eating all the potato chips and not any leaving for other people who had brought food. Some of them went out on the front lawn at the person's house and set off firecrackers which caused neighbors to call the police. This is the kind of stuff that was in every month's newsletter. Was a huge disappointment. That was back when I was in the LA area.
More than 20 years later I had retired and was living in Northern California. Got a letter from Mensa inviting me to reactivate my membership. I gave it try figuring maybe things would be different here in this place and time. Nope. Same thing again.
Regarding IQ itself, mostly it correlates with ability to succeed in school, given sufficient expenditure of effort. It is pretty much distinct from what has come to be called rationality/disrationality. Highly intelligent people can be quite disrational. IOW, being clever isn't the same thing as being right.
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Bike - well I often had a lot of equipment carry, and the weather was often bucketing down. Worked long hours too, the sort of roads involved are not safe to cycle in the dark. This isn't France in the sun! Cycling is good - I cycle off road a lot - but not always appropriate by any means.
House - as I said, if you read it, it was a logical, and correct financial decision. Didn't tie me down at all.
Double blind tests conducted by amateurs-in-perceptual-testing for the purpose of "confronting an audiophile to prove them they can't hear crap" should be criticized. There is incompetence on the part the so-called experimenters, there is gross experimenter bias (expectation bias), etc.
In 2008 I had a base rate tracker interest only mortgage, I was about to pay it off. But after 2008 it only cost peanuts and the capital I had made a better return elsewhere rather than paying off the loan! Sometimes you eat the bear... 🙂
Aren't they both on Chronicles?
Anyway, I'd say that "in the year 2525" by Zager and Evans is much more prophetic, as much as a RUSH fan that I am.
Amateurs don't conduct double-blind tests. Amateurs think double blind means that the experimenter doesn't tell the participants what they'll be listening to. In the scientific sense, in a double blind experiment neither the experimenter nor the participants know what is being manipulated. It's actually pretty difficult to design an unbiased, double-blind experiment. Even if you do everything to ensure that nobody knows what's being tested, you can still end up with biased results by asking the wrong question.
For example: Which sounds better? A or B?
That sounds simple enough, right? How could this possibly be biased? Well... By asking the question that way you imply that there is a difference between A and B and you force people to choose one or the other. A better way to ask would be:
Which do you prefer? A, B, I have no preference
Similarly, you can get biased results if the instructions to the experiment leads the participants. For example: "In this experiment you will be presented with two sound clips. You will then be asked to indicate which of the clips you prefer." Now you're indicating that there will be a difference. A better approach would be, "In this experiment you will be presented with two sound clips. You will then be asked to indicate whether you prefer one over the other. There may not be any difference between the clips".
Designing a good experiment is hard, especially when it involves humans.
Tom
So it seems you have selected your particular "corner" from which to discredit double-blind testing...I'll check you off that particular choice, "Amateur testers". No doubt there will be an endless barrage of other attempts selecting other avenues of discreditation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...
Agreed.
Perhaps interesting that a favorite of the DBT audio forum crowd is ABX. ABX is discrimination test protocol. A is X and B is Y makes no sense in terms of preference.
ABX is also a forced-choice protocol by design. IIUC there are basically two reasons:
1. If the test subject has an unconscious choice bias, then it might be expected to show up statistically.
2. It may make calculating the statistics easier for the experimenter.
To be clear, I am not discrediting blind testing at all. I am discrediting your pseudoscientific exemplification of Dunning-Kruger in action. Totally different thing.
I agree with the forced choice aspect. It would be interesting to include a no preference option. That said, if there is no difference between the stimuli you would expect participants to be no better than chance at guessing which stimulus is presented. It would be pretty unlikely that someone was able to guess correctly 19 times out of 20 (or 95 times out of 100). It would be even less likely that 100 participants were able to guess correctly 19 times out of 20.
That said, I'm not aware of anyone in DIY audio who runs a true double-blind ABX experiment. The ABX part is easy. Just throw a computer or micro controller and some relays at it. It's the double-blind that gets people every time.
Tom
True, at least at a certain level. But there is level matching to accomplish, there are problems with relays making acoustical noise in certain patterns, problems with added connectors, wiring, ground loops, etc. Doing it really well requires a certain amount of validation of the test apparatus. Not everyone is expert at that part either, although some here could do it.
EDIT: Another issue is training of test subjects to assure that what is actually being measured is not the test subject's level of comfort with the experimental procedure. Additional training may be needed depending on the experimental question or questions. Is it about what can a naive subject hear? Is it about the best a human can do under the best of conditions? Etc...
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Here’s a crazy thought.
50 yrs ago it was mostly people in then advanced economies with the benefit of good education taking IQ tests. Fast forward to 2023, and there are now many folks in 3rd world and developing economies taking IQ tests. This, for the time being due to lower education standards, will skew to global average IQ lower. However, as education in 3rd world and developing economies improves, expect the global average to improve again.
As my wife, a psychologist, also reminds me in these matters, IQ tests are very culturally biased towards Western notions of cognitive ability.
50 yrs ago it was mostly people in then advanced economies with the benefit of good education taking IQ tests. Fast forward to 2023, and there are now many folks in 3rd world and developing economies taking IQ tests. This, for the time being due to lower education standards, will skew to global average IQ lower. However, as education in 3rd world and developing economies improves, expect the global average to improve again.
As my wife, a psychologist, also reminds me in these matters, IQ tests are very culturally biased towards Western notions of cognitive ability.
So many good posts since I last posted. Where to start gpauk - you were lucky to be living when real opportunities were available and you took them. You made a really intelligent assessment in 2008. Did you have parents that wised you up from an early age or maybe you were just canny. Most people don't have parents or anyone to show them at the right age just exactly what the craic is. I was lucky that at the top of our house, which was made up of flats was a retired district officer who like so many others was virtually abandoned at the end of Empire on a fixed pension, As Sterling has only ever been on a downward trajectory he had to be smart with his investments or he would have been destitute. From the age of 12 he taught me to understand the markets via the Financial Times. markets are driven by greed and fear, never trust anyone with your money, beware of smiling faces etc. Of course in a real democracy schools would have financial awareness classes from around the age of 14 and you would be given a manual, to keep for life - how not to get ripped off, how to invest - it will never happen as too many parasites would be looking for a strong cardboard box to live in.
tomchr - spot on description of bias brainwashing. I briefly made and sold i/connects, I couldn't justify the prices I was charging because of the time it took me to make them. I needed a good mechanical engineer to make me a jig to speed up the process. It had taken me 4 years of trial and error to arrive at a design, the right materials that was optimum. On the way I learned why commercial companies virtually all used the same methods - economy of production to increase profits and lots of absolute b/s marketing which is laughable. What I thought/found about my cables was irrelevant I had to present them to others to evaluate. I sent cables to be trialled by others on 3 different continents (no racial or national bias) of different ages. The only difference was in the conductors ( I used 4 x for signal and return) the design and construction were the same. the first was minimal microns of silver over copper and high purity silver. The only difference was on the colour of the sheathing. I expected there would be differences of opinion, the shock was the unanimity of findings. All testers preferred the high purity silver. I cannot now remember which of the two different conductors had either the red or black sheathing. I find it hard to believe that either colour would have made the findings identical.
Richard Ellis - you need to check out how you 'think' the bias is all yours not tomchr.
Markw4 - I have a niece who left Cambridge Uni with a double first with distinction. I havn't had any contact with her for about 27 years and I don't plan to in the future. However when she was about 14 I went for a walk with her on the beach in Hove, Sussex. She knew I was into experimental psychology and read books that she would never encounter at school or at home. She said to me why do you always draw a distinction between IQ and intelligence. I said to her how many pebbles of all sizes do you think are on this one beach. She thought about it and said "billions, possibly trillions". So I said "look to your left as far as the eye can see and then look to your right, you can possibly see in total about 10 miles from left to right, how many pebbles in total". She said quite rightly, impossible to calculate. I picked up one pebble and said that is IQ and the rest represent intelligence. She seemed stunned and couldn't comprehend what I had said and I doubt she can today.
The first thing that any double blind test should do is find out the ability to hear of all those whose opinions are sought. To do that all those taking part should have bona fide hearing test conducted in an anachoic chamber. I was lucky moving to the Tarn from the Aveyron. Here they do a whole body testing for new arrivals and that included a proper hearing test. That is the only way to know for sure just how good or bad the individual level of hearing is. Only those with a very high level of hearing should take part. How many guys use their wives/partners when they make a change in their system and rely on what they say for good reason. The 'trained ear' is a programmed ear, hence the little boy who says - the emperor is blck naked.
You also make very valid points about the equipment, if the equipment used is not transparent how are you going to know if there is a genuine difference between A or B? If bias is built in to the participants consciousness then again they should'nt be taking part. Get a group of women with good tested hearing who could'nt care less about music and let them judge. I/connects - shielded or unshielded, standard conductors tightly wrapped in whatever material or air cored conductors. A lot of connectors are in scientific terms are made of crap materials, the designs of all are decades old. Obsessing about amplifier designs when the signal is transported via methods and materials that are far from optimum but which are ignored, not seen as sexy. The signal and how it is conducted/transported is the equivalent of the foundations of a house - the most important aspect of house building, which most people never think about. Today we have incredible computing power, the ability to process data in seconds. The Japanese decided to look at t/tables from ground zero, the direct drive t/t was the result in engineering terms the best are incredible. All it would take was one one university/engineering dept. to start looking with an open mind at the whole process of creating the optimum sound system, it would result in a lot of commercial companies going out of business.
tomchr - spot on description of bias brainwashing. I briefly made and sold i/connects, I couldn't justify the prices I was charging because of the time it took me to make them. I needed a good mechanical engineer to make me a jig to speed up the process. It had taken me 4 years of trial and error to arrive at a design, the right materials that was optimum. On the way I learned why commercial companies virtually all used the same methods - economy of production to increase profits and lots of absolute b/s marketing which is laughable. What I thought/found about my cables was irrelevant I had to present them to others to evaluate. I sent cables to be trialled by others on 3 different continents (no racial or national bias) of different ages. The only difference was in the conductors ( I used 4 x for signal and return) the design and construction were the same. the first was minimal microns of silver over copper and high purity silver. The only difference was on the colour of the sheathing. I expected there would be differences of opinion, the shock was the unanimity of findings. All testers preferred the high purity silver. I cannot now remember which of the two different conductors had either the red or black sheathing. I find it hard to believe that either colour would have made the findings identical.
Richard Ellis - you need to check out how you 'think' the bias is all yours not tomchr.
Markw4 - I have a niece who left Cambridge Uni with a double first with distinction. I havn't had any contact with her for about 27 years and I don't plan to in the future. However when she was about 14 I went for a walk with her on the beach in Hove, Sussex. She knew I was into experimental psychology and read books that she would never encounter at school or at home. She said to me why do you always draw a distinction between IQ and intelligence. I said to her how many pebbles of all sizes do you think are on this one beach. She thought about it and said "billions, possibly trillions". So I said "look to your left as far as the eye can see and then look to your right, you can possibly see in total about 10 miles from left to right, how many pebbles in total". She said quite rightly, impossible to calculate. I picked up one pebble and said that is IQ and the rest represent intelligence. She seemed stunned and couldn't comprehend what I had said and I doubt she can today.
The first thing that any double blind test should do is find out the ability to hear of all those whose opinions are sought. To do that all those taking part should have bona fide hearing test conducted in an anachoic chamber. I was lucky moving to the Tarn from the Aveyron. Here they do a whole body testing for new arrivals and that included a proper hearing test. That is the only way to know for sure just how good or bad the individual level of hearing is. Only those with a very high level of hearing should take part. How many guys use their wives/partners when they make a change in their system and rely on what they say for good reason. The 'trained ear' is a programmed ear, hence the little boy who says - the emperor is blck naked.
You also make very valid points about the equipment, if the equipment used is not transparent how are you going to know if there is a genuine difference between A or B? If bias is built in to the participants consciousness then again they should'nt be taking part. Get a group of women with good tested hearing who could'nt care less about music and let them judge. I/connects - shielded or unshielded, standard conductors tightly wrapped in whatever material or air cored conductors. A lot of connectors are in scientific terms are made of crap materials, the designs of all are decades old. Obsessing about amplifier designs when the signal is transported via methods and materials that are far from optimum but which are ignored, not seen as sexy. The signal and how it is conducted/transported is the equivalent of the foundations of a house - the most important aspect of house building, which most people never think about. Today we have incredible computing power, the ability to process data in seconds. The Japanese decided to look at t/tables from ground zero, the direct drive t/t was the result in engineering terms the best are incredible. All it would take was one one university/engineering dept. to start looking with an open mind at the whole process of creating the optimum sound system, it would result in a lot of commercial companies going out of business.
That's a coincidence...last night I was looking at the TI-25 I used in school. Almost unbelievably, it still works using the same two button batteries from back then, and I left school in 1981.
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