the.com/calibration
Teaching your confidence to match your actual competence, for once.
means The process of checking and adjusting an instrument (or a judgment) against a known standard so its readings can actually be trusted.
from From Latin 'calibrum'/'qualibrum', meaning the bore or gauge of a tube, itself likely a medieval corruption influenced by Arabic 'qālib' (a mold or shoe-last). The word entered English through gunnery and metalwork — 'caliber' described the inner diameter of a gun barrel, and 'calibrate' grew from the practice of measuring that diameter precisely against a standard gauge. From there it widened out to cover any act of adjusting an instrument — or, these days, an ego — to match reality.
- forecasters' trick
- Well-calibrated 70% predictions come true 70% of the time.
- NIST traceability
- Every lab scale traces back to one Paris kilogram.
- overconfidence tax
- Most people's 90% certainty is right far less often.
- instrument drift
- Even atomic clocks need recalibration against each other.