How do I dynamically create functions without lambda?

[Terry Hancock]

On Thu, 2 Feb 2006 20:05:14 -0800
aleaxit at yahoo.com (Alex Martelli) wrote:
> Benji York <benji at benjiyork.com> wrote:
> > Alex Martelli wrote:
> > > Disagree -- far more people THINK they're clever, than
> > > really ARE clever.  According to a recent article in
> > > the Financial Times, over 40% of a typical financial
> > > firm's employees firmly believe they are among the 5%
> > > best employees of the firm -- and the situation,
> > > believe me, is no different in programming.
> > 
> > It's apparently no different anywhere: 
> > http://www.phule.net/mirrors/unskilled-and-unaware.html

I have to say, I've read this paper, and it's pretty bad
science.  I think they seriously over-interpreted their
data.  There are a lot of different ways to interpret the
data they present, and it takes a fair amount of sophistry
for them to come up with it "supporting" their hypothesis.

Which doesn't *disprove* the idea, but I remain unconvinced
by their reasoning.  No doubt the effect they describe is
not non-existant, but I question whether it has as much
impact as proposed.

Note also in the datasets that *overperformers* *underrated*
their performance.

Also, the research was done on *particularly* subjective
subject matter!  Take the "humor" category for example.

I also think this is precisely the kind of experiment that
has to be made *very* objective to be at all useful. It's so
easy to sensationalize: it plays on your self-worth fears,
your cynicism, and your arrogance *at the same time*.  It's
hard to imagine that anyone accepting the results is doing
so for scientific reasons.

Frankly this paper sounds like a bid for the "Journal of
Irreproducible Results" that somehow got accidentally
submitted to a serious journal (of course, I don't know
enough about psychology journals to know if that is really
a "serious journal", but I'm taking it at face value).

Of course, you *could* conclude that I'm just "unskilled and
unaware of it" for believing this -- but that's the beauty
of all self-reinforcing delusions, isn't it. ;-)

Cheers,
Terry


 -- 
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com