alt Hacker NewsI remember a study from a while back that found something like "50% of 2nd graders think that french fries are made out of meat instead of potatoes. Methodology: we asked kids if french fries were meat or potatoes."
Everyone was going around acting like this meant 50% of 2nd graders were stupid with terrible parents. (Or, conversely, that 50% of 2nd graders were geniuses for "knowing" it was potatoes at all)
But I think that was the wrong conclusion.
The right conclusion was that all the kids guessed and they had a 50% chance of getting it right.
And I think there is probably an element of this going on with the small models vs big models dichotomy.
I think it also points to the problem of implicit assumptions. Fish is meat, right? Except for historical reasons, the grocery store's marketing says "Fish & Meat."
And then there's nut meats. Coconut meat. All the kinds of meat from before meat meant the stuff in animals. The meat of the problem. Meat and potatoes issues.
If you asked that question before I'd picked up those implicit assumptions, or if I never did, I would have to guess.