Is there some logic behind this poll that I'm not seeing?

He's training a discriminative classifier. Run for the hills!

Maybe it's a pack of three iterative dichotomisers.

It's not entirely random, but I wouldn't call it "logic". It doesn't come from nowhere, but I don't want to "lead the witness."

Maybe that both juggling and playing the piano require good coordination?

Juggling three balls requires less co-ordination than walking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T16_BVIFFPQ is a good place to start.

I find it a pretty good way to clear my mind.

thank you, i am now able to juggle.

Have you gone back and ticked the correct option in the poll?

Definition of "play piano" and "juggle", please. How competently and/or frequently should one do these things before answering yes?

(In the absence of an answer to this, those variables are going to get confounded with arrogance, self-confidence, etc.)

Clearly a "Hacker News Piano-Playing Contest" is in order. And a juggling one too.

There is one more category: right or left handed and learning to use the other hand in an attempt to become ambidextrous. It's the best use of boring meetings time.

Interesting. I'm actually learning to use the other hand precisely because I'm also learning to play the piano -- Chopin's preludes have very demanding left-hand parts, so I figured I would probably benefit from strengthening my left-hand muscles in any way possible. I also plan on purchasing a left-handed classical guitar for this reason as well.

Is there a genetic component to this or is it just practicing?

I don't think what I'm doing is a standard practice, I've heard of certain stress and 'baoding' balls being used to strengthen muscles (video: http://www.baodingballs.com/baoding_ball_techniques.html ), but I think that's about it. Normally, pianists just practise playing études and doing run-ups with scales.

That said, I have noticed a difference in my fretting hand as a result of trying to become ambidextrous, so it hasn't all been for naught. :) As for what I do with my left hand: anything that I can do with it -- I brush my teeth with my left hand, hold my cup of tea with my left hand, and in easier, non-technical classes, I copy down notes with my left hand. I have been doing this for about 2 years now.

I clicked "Don't play piano, right handed, juggle" because I have never had a piano lesson (okay, maybe exactly one). When I took a piano audition taken by all applying music majors, however, I was told, "You play the piano better than anyone yet who has never had piano lessons." It has something to do with having a piano in the house for the past 10 years (my sister plays it).

I also clicked "don't play piano" because I can't play anything very difficult, but I can sit down with a beginner level piano book and play pretty much any song in it.

IMO it would be helpful to have a clear dividing line. Is it "Mary had a little lamb" or "Fur Elise"?

I think the dividing line is that he said "don't play the piano (regularly?)" instead of "can't play the piano".

Maybe you can sit down with a beginner level piano book - but do you?

I'm finding this interesting, but as the item falls off the "newest" list we'll not get many answers. People will have to upvote it to get more answers.

If you don't want me to get the karma, down-vote this comment. Then if it hits the floor I'll put another scapegoat comment.

don't do this, it's silly.

I had several votes in the poll, but no up-mods. I don't care about the karma, but I wanted the poll to have a chance of being seen. It was rapidly dropping off the "newest" page, and it needed up-votes, but I didn't want to ask for them.

This is the only compromise I could find. You may not see this as a problem, but I do, and this is the only solution I've found. If you have a better solution then I'd be interested to hear it.

If the idea is good you'll get the votes, if not too bad. Nobody is going to withhold the votes in order to not give you the karma. Polls usually don't get a lot of upvotes unless the poll subject is really good.

I appreciate your point of view, but I disagree with your conclusions. Let me explain.

  > If the idea is good you'll get the vote.

That's true of most submissions, but doesn't seem to be true of polls.

  > Nobody is going to withhold the votes in order to not give you the karma.

I think there will be people who vote and move on without thinking to upvote it. Because of that, I wanted to remind people to up-vote the submission.

However, there are people who resent being asked for up-votes, and I wanted to make sure they weren't annoyed by that. I don't want to annoy people gratuitously, and this is the technique I have. People who don't care about karma, whatever, won't care (mostly). People who do care about karma, whatever, have a means of punishing me for asking.

  > Polls usually don't get a lot of upvotes unless the poll subject is really good.

Exactly, that's why I wanted to ask for upmods - to buck that trend.

So here's a summary of my reasoning:

* Some people vote and move on without upmodding

* I want them to upmod so the item has a chance to get enough votes to be vaguely meaningful

* That means I need to ask for upmods

* Some people resent that, so I need some way they can punish me

* The "scapegoat comment" seems to satisfy that.

Interesting that informal karma bartering has struck up of its own accord. Probably a lot more goes on behind the scenes.

I really don't understand why people concern themselves at all with "karma". You can't spend it, you can't invest it, it doesn't enrich you, it doesn't help you achieve any goals (...that are worth achieving).

It's pretty much a high score in a video arcade.

And yet some people do. I'm not one of them.

As explained elsewhere, it's not really the karma, it's the being asked for up-mods. Some people resent that, and for them I provide a way to punish me.

Out of curiosity, is this in any way related to your "coding test"? and what made you choose this specific set of variables?

It's not (although I'm writing up the results from that now) and there is a reason behind the variables, but I haven't tracked down the exact reference, so don't want to say too much yet.

Could you provide a link to the coding test? It sounds interesting.

I used to play piano, but don't anymore, so I put "don't play piano". I juggle quite regularly.

guitars don't count? that's also something that requires both hands working in synchrony.

I don't find it the same. I learned classical guitar, then piano much later. Playing guitar, the hands have separate roles and the timing of your hands does not have to coordinate in the same way. Think about playing a fugue in the piano - there's really no equivalent on guitar.

There are of course challenges presented by guitar music that don't exist on the piano. Eg, there are multiple ways/positions to play the a given note on guitar, but exactly one on the piano.

Playing guitar with double-tapping and other similar methods does require coordination of hands that's similar to that in a piano, it would seem to me. But I'm not a pianist, so who knows.

No options for ambidexterity?

True ambidexterity (or bi-sinistrality) is rare, and there are already eight options.

(At the time of this comment) 25% of HNers "play piano"? Interesting.

I confess that I cheated. I play piano, am right-handed, but haven't mastered juggling. Yet.