Re: GNOME user survey 2011 (v4)

[Felipe Contreras <felipe contreras gmail com>]

On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 at 6:24 AM, Benjamin Otte <otte gnome org> wrote:
> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras <at> gmail.com> writes:
>>
>> That doesn't change the fact that everyone understands the word "happy".
> http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.html

Yes, I have seen that video before.

However, not once in that video is he suggesting that people are
confused about what "happy" means. When somebody says he is "happy"
with his vacation, he knows exactly what he means, and so do we.

What Kahneman is saying is that we are talking to remembering self,
that's all. You can't ask the experiencing self anything, only the
remembering self can answer something in a survey.

Now, here's the funny part, this is similar to the reason why you need
a survey; you need some data, some numbers. Because when you ask the
question "Is GNOME improving?" or "Do people like GNOME 3?", all you
have are recollections of experiences which can be completely
distorted from the reality, only with data you can have some degree of
certainty.

-- 
Felipe Contreras