Is it something to do with software/computer professionals?

Posted on June 11, 2008 Updated on June 11, 2008

Why do all experiments conducted on software/professionals fail? In my post on the wisdom of crowds experiment, I wrote on an experiment conducted on approximately 150 computer professionals.

Coincidentally, I attended a conference where Richard Gabriel spoke on ‘In Search of Beauty’ and expanded on Christopher Alexander’s work: ‘Timeless way of Building’.

In one of the slides he had images of 2 carpets kept side by side and asked the audience as to which one was ‘more beautiful, more like an image of themselves, more human’. About 1/3 of the audience choose the one on the left and 2/3 choose the one on the right.

He mentioned that this result was a conclusive proof that we all were computer professionals. ONLY in this sample group did the results always come up this way and in all other sample groups – doctors, psychologists, biologists, lawyers, normal people etc, 9 out of 10 people choose the carpet on the left.

This raises a question: Is it something to do with software/computer professionals — all experiments that seem to work on ‘normal people’ fail on them?