I’ve taken the time to properly read yesterday’s personality-test result, and one thing struck me. I didn’t pay too much notice to it at first, though when I read the sentence again, I realised how easy it is to read what one wants to hear, while ignoring the obvious error in the whole. At the end of the summary it says that:

Idealists are rare, making up between 20 and 25 percent of the population.

I, like many people, like to think I’m a bit special, having an individuality about me that others do not. While it is impossible to gain any sense of real individualism in a test that classifies (into 4 groups, essentially), it still gave me a warm glow to see I was “rare”. I gleaned over the rest of the sentence, but on second glance it clearly states that I shares traits that 20-25% of the population do.

Since when has it ever, ever been “rare” to to be among 25%? If British Airways came out with a statement that if I were to travel to England on one of their flights, the chances are “rare” that I’d crash (mumbling “just don’t do it three more times or you’ll more than likely die in flames”).

No, rare to me (and many dictionaries) means uncommon, and I’d be surprised if, whilst playing football, the striker and the substitute (and two players on the opposing team) turned to me and said gleefully in perfect synchrony “Well, what are the chances of that?”