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I've designed a little calculator called the Cleverer Quantifier!
Think about how much info we're exposed to and acquire each day. Even if we barely notice changes because they're incremental and diluted (spread out across a wide variety of topics), the cumulative amounts are significant.
I created the CQ as a fun tool for myself to help me quantify the amount of learning that I experience during a given length of time. Instead of just maintaining hazy mental ideas of how much info I acquire on a regular basis (one journal article's worth per hour? how much is that?), I wanted to systematically put numbers to my sources of knowledge and estimate how many pieces of information could potentially be gleaned, as well as estimate the proportion that gets retained in memory.
Different types of info have different degrees of relevance, value, and staying power, and address a variety of subjects, from the broad to the detailed, so I classify factual knowledge into two rough categories- 'broad facts' and 'detailed facts':
'Broad facts' are pieces of knowledge that affect my perceptions in a relatively fundamental and attitude- or behaviour-changing way. 'Detailed facts' are items of information that are more specific to a particular context, and while they're useful to have at hand, the vast majority get forgotten and their main contribution goes towards reinforcing 'broad facts.'
An example of a broad fact: 'A major factor underlying the huge disparities in income and living standards that we see across nations and continents today, is the degree of geographical connectivity between these regions, because this determined the spread and development of technology throughout their history.' (Courtesy of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel.)
An example of a detailed fact: 'The World Bank sets the poverty line at $1.25 per day (this value's already adjusted for currency conversion).' (Courtesy of Peter Singer's The Life You Can Save.)
The calculator's tailored to my personal interests and my predominant sources of info. Sorry about that- will hopefully get round to producing version 2, which will be more customisable and interactive. But in the meantime, if anyone's interested enough, feel free to rip and customise my version to suit yourself. All the JS scripts were taken from free online sources, forums, under Creative Commons licenses, etc, and I cobbled them together to make what I needed. Or contact me and I'll send you a copy.
The CQ references page lists the demos and web design tools to which I referred- thanks!
Comments or suggestions more than welcome- email me, scintillatingxing at gmail dot com
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