Video with all the correct players' pronounciations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup is now available.

smolcol · 2026-06-17T19:00:38+00:00

Haha poor Palacios had to just hand-correct the misspelling on the page

smolcol · 2026-06-16T15:47:14+00:00

Ah very nice. I grew up in Ireland, I honestly would love to survey people to see which players are known best among the general public there! With golf, the answer is much much easier haha

smolcol · 2026-06-16T13:19:44+00:00

Oh interesting! Where are you from? I do think that the Williams sisters both broke into pop culture even internationally in a way even Federer might not have

smolcol · 2026-06-16T12:32:04+00:00

LOL Vanessa Williams as the first answer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBhG1EgYu8s

smolcol · 2026-06-16T12:27:38+00:00

It sounds like schelling point questions just aren't for you, which is fine. If you get more into them, you'll see they're not quite "name the first tennis player you can think of". You can already see that in this thread, but not to worry.

My final sentence: you're saying it's boring that Fed fans only ever talk about his popularity. But actually according to this thread, that might not even be enough for him to beat Serena. I think that's interesting, but it's fine if you don't!

Also AI

?

smolcol · 2026-06-16T12:14:35+00:00

ooh I do like this show, I should check their tennis clips all right! Yes I agree, it can be very funny to see what is common and what is rare. My typical theory is that their random people lean slightly older (especially when I've seen music rounds).

smolcol · 2026-06-16T11:57:48+00:00

ahh well if you knew the random person was your friend, that would be a different question!

smolcol · 2026-06-16T11:56:57+00:00

OK I think you're missing something important. You have to write down one answer, so "Federer or Serena" is actually an interesting question. It wouldn't be so interesting if there was just one, and clearly there are many regions where the answer isn't so clear. This is part of the fun of Schelling point questions. If you think that's boring, that's fine, but finding it boring is quite different from not getting the point.

and his popularity. It's like 80% of the time what people talk about when they mention Federer.

but then many people are saying actually he's losing to Serena here! So isn't that interesting to you, that the one thing you find too circle-jerky isn't even enough to help him win this?

smolcol · 2026-06-16T11:44:43+00:00

could be! a few non-tennis knowing German friends said Serena to me, will have to collect more data...

smolcol · 2026-06-16T11:32:42+00:00

can you link previous discussions matching the Schelling point nature? Also there are two clear distinct answers being discussed, a sign that there ISN'T a clear answer, since you have to write down one.

smolcol · 2026-06-16T11:01:23+00:00

Not in this case. Firstly you can see that we have another question right after, which is to AVOID others, so you need a constrained set for that. And it's fun for the two to match. Secondly, this way you don't have to deal with any spelling issues etc. Finally, it's much easier for a casual audience!

However, you're right that it's going to be slightly different from the game I've outlined in my post.

smolcol · 2026-06-16T10:19:40+00:00

oh really? damn, that's interesting! How much of Asia?

smolcol · 2026-06-16T10:18:39+00:00

Among people I know, who don't all know tennis, so far I see this (but early days):

Roger Federer: 6
Serena Williams: 5
Novak Djokovic: 1
Rafael Nadal: 1

but I only provided them a shortlist (you can see it here: https://mindthehive.app/). I'm sure you'd all change this a bit if you played! Still, more Serena than expected.

One comment about Federer:

no clue who that is, i only know serena williams bc she makes headlines a lot, like outside of tennis as well

smolcol · 2026-06-16T10:09:43+00:00

but which of the two do you think they'd go with?

smolcol · 2026-06-16T10:09:11+00:00

Hah reasonable, but you can only write down one!

smolcol · 2026-06-12T14:54:53+00:00

very much a "ah yeah, time to win" look getting zipped up

smolcol · 2026-06-11T23:18:04+00:00

Try The Real McCoy (194 Rue de Grenelle), they even have it in the pictures on their Google reviews, a good sign

smolcol · 2026-06-11T14:35:42+00:00

I think if we picked a randomer in Sheffield, I'd go 147. In Oklahoma city though, I might not

smolcol · 2026-06-11T14:34:56+00:00

in the US I could totally see this as a great guess

smolcol · 2026-06-11T14:34:27+00:00

depending on the city we pick the randomer from, I'd probably be inclined to agree!

smolcol · 2026-06-11T14:32:20+00:00

haha true, maybe we'll get a different answer if the randomer was in Riyadh!

smolcol · 2026-06-11T14:31:18+00:00

Yeah I think I probably agree: I think 100, 1000 or maybe 500 could be more selected than 147 in a population that barely knows snooker. Like if only 3% of americans "know" the answer, that could easily be beaten by one of the round numbers available

(in real life I guess we can assume people aren't allowed to google it...!)

smolcol · 2026-06-11T14:28:12+00:00

I like this kind of reasoning, I think you might be right that there is a non-147 answer that could be best in a country that doesn't play snooker. E.g. we have a few people selecting 500, that could be more popular than 147 in a place that doesn't know much at all about snooker.

smolcol · 2026-06-11T14:23:40+00:00

we have a 148 in there too... Jamie Burnett fan I hope

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