False Precision by David duKor-Jackson

Very early on in my Admissions career I happened to take a slice from a cherry pie that someone had brought into the office to share. As one might expect, I was inevitably asked about my assessment of said pie. I responded that it was “good.”  That turned out to be an unsatisfactory response because I was subsequently asked to rate the pie on a scale of 1 to 10. There were a number of things that went through my mind in that moment.

1. A “normal” person would just respond with a number and be done with it
2. Why does anyone care what I think of this pie
3. The 1 to 10 scale seems arbitrary and intellectually lazy, with far too much potential variability depending upon who is responding

So instead of giving a number, I simply said “I don’t use the 1 to 10 scale.”  Which elicited another question, “What scale do you use?”

In truth I didn’t use another scale, and had never given it much thought. I was simply being contrary because I was annoyed (possibly unreasonably) that my decision to have a slice of pie had a hidden cost in the form of this rating inquisition. Not one to give in though, I improvised, and conceived a personal scale on the spot,  matter of factly responding, “I use the -1 to 1 scale.”

You guessed it. More questions. “What?  How does that work?”

I explained, “There are only three possible ratings. ‘-1’, ‘0’, and ‘1’. A negative one fails to meet my expectations. A zero meets my expectations, and a one exceeds my expectations.  The pie was good. I expect pie to be good, therefore the cherry pie is a zero.”

The protests were immediate. I think there was a visceral reaction to a zero rating, even though it was no more arbitrary than anything else. There were also objections to my insistence on integers and the inability for additional differentiation between a zero and a one.

My argument was that any potential marginal differences were not meaningful to me, and not only unnecessary, but also undesired.   I also pointed out that no one was under any obligation to use my scale, as it was simply the way that I chose to rate things.

And now you are thinking, “Great story David.  What is the point of all this?”  Perhaps there is no point, or perhaps there is.

Maybe the utility of my rating scale, (which some colloquially refer to as the duKor-Jackson scale, even though my family wants no association with it, or more colorfully the cherry pie scale,) and this particular blog post, like most things, is up to the interpretation of a given individual and how applicable it may be to them.  I understand that the value of something is often dependent upon its relative worth to someone else, but I’m not sure that we need to do that with everything.  The college decision, for example, should be about much more than dubious  guidebook ratings or the uninformed opinions of family, friends and acquaintances.  Moreover, the hyper-granular distinctions that are often made to differentiate between things are frequently just plain meaningless.

There certainly can be value in soliciting input from others while collecting information in order to make a decision, but there is no substitute for reflecting on what has inherent value to you, relative to your own aspirations, desires and objectives.

Just a little food for thought, as the time to make big decisions nears.