Which do you care more about: precision or accuracy?

Spared everyone the obligatory picture of dartboards.

I care SO VERY MUCH that I honestly don't understand the distinction.

I feel like precision leans closer to pedantry than accuracy does

I think you may be right, NV.

All the people saying things like "I am 60% sure" are being very precise, but not maybe very accurate.

So precision is bullshit, by this definition? Then I don't much care for that.

it's possible that 60% is accurately as sure as they are, no?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY03xrcaIlM

That is a fucking awesome song.

I'm like 95% sure of that.

If they are 60% sure of their 60% confidence in something, then what is their actual level of certitude?

Show your work.

but can one ever be truly accurate about anything? *strokes chin*

If I am understanding the distinction, then precision is completely useless without accuracy.

In which case, I like precision more. Is more attainable. I'm never gonna get anything right but I can enjoy being a whiny-assed bore in the process.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Llxf0Z81zHA/ScT_alte1zI/AAAAAAAAFMI/nJKf2kA9Taw/s1600/hurm.jpg

http://i.neoseeker.com/mgv/9935-Akira_EX/935/31/144a161.gif

my impression is that "precision" implies "intent", "careful attention" etc.. whereas "accuracy" is the result of "precision".

precision is completely useless without accuracy

OTM, obv.

my definitions:

precision = useless decimal places
accuracy = useless decimal places that are correct

in logical argumentation as a form of art/play/sport, the deck might not be so completely stacked against precision. there, it might matter less that your statements are correct than that they are elegant and precisely reasoned.

Ah, a fellow debater.

Oh man, salsa shark, thank you so much for posting that gif.

i was listening to some little kid talk about a very sturdy watch he owned and he kept saying things like "you would need to hit it 16 times with superforce to make a creak, and then hit it 19 times to break it"--little kids: very precise, rarely accurate

I am kind of tempted to vote precision for that reason – it is really funny to me when something is precise but very obviously inaccurate.

Also, sometimes being precise but inaccurate works – how about those people who get on the Price is Right stage by guessing $1?

I am raising six hundred and thirty-seven eyebrows at this thread.

(oh, sorry, that's a "me too")

I also want to know what unit "superforce" is measured in. (Little kids are so great.)

I prefer accuracy because it's on the cover of my favourite Spacemen 3 record.

(Though I would not say no to a Precision Bass, mind you.)

i prefer accuracy because it's a fucking awesome song by the cure - a band sadly short of fucking awesome songs

(though i would not say no to new precision auto by be bop deluxe)

auto

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y'all are crazy! I think as humans beings, we rely on the repeatibility of results that comes from precision (maybe because it helps us to avoid cognitive dissonance?) just as much as, if not more than, some sort of abstract/objective "accuracy" as proximity to an unknowable noumenal truth.

I dunno man, I'd rather have accurately eaten a lot of hotdogs and have beaten takeshi than be robbed of the crown by some fool who miscounted by exactly 0.25 hotdogs.
Truth is much more tangible If you can reframe your worldview in terms of being robbed at a hotdog-eating contest.

I just downloaded a little timer application which opens with this dialog box:

Chimoo Timer has been designed to be highly accurate, however it may not be suitable for use in situations where precise time intervals need to be measured.

It made me check a box labeled "I have read accuracy disclaimer" to get rid of the dialog box.