They Say You Shouldn’t Compare, But…
So I was checking my ‘Compare People’ rankings on Facebook. And it’s time to set the record straight on a few things. Here’s my thoughts on where I rank so you can vote accordingly, OK?!?!?!?
1st in “Who is a better singer” Clearly, I need to quit my day job and release an album.
6th in “Who has a better smile” Not bad.
6th in “Who would I rather get stuck in handcuffs with” This is only true if you have a strong and dark sense of humor.
6th in “Who is more generous” Thank you!
6th in “Who is more entertaining” Gratzi again!
6th in “Who more likely to succeed” Oh I hope so. I have big dreams.
7th in “Who is sexier” Ah, I can see my husband has been voting for me. He shall be richly rewarded.
9th in “Who would make a better mother” Well, I’ve only been at it a year. And instead of starting at the age of 0, I started at the ages of 9 and 10. I think I’m doing pretty good.
10th in “Who is a harder worker” Uh yeah. This should be lower. Look at this blog post. I should be working instead.
10th in “Who would I rather sleep with” Just skip this altogether. Only my husband gets to sleep with me. You won’t get any brownie points by voting me up in this category. I’m not that kind of girl!
11th in “Who is more punctual” I’m the LEAST punctual person on this planet. Worse than Bill Clinton. Seriously. I shouldn’t even rank here.
11th in “Who is funnier” Well, this is tough since I have alot of improv people in my friends list. But hopefully I will be higher in the future.
12th in “Who is prettier” I’m a decent-looking broad.
12th in “Who is more attractive” Not bad considering I’ve gained 30 lbs in the past 2 yearsa.
13th in “Who has better hair” I wear it up all the time. I get the most compliments when it’s long. But it was long for so long, I’m giving myself a break.
13th in “Who is cuter” I’m not sure if I’m a cute person, so average in this category is good.
13th in “Who is more cuddly” I’m SO not a cuddly person.
15th in “Who has prettier eyes” I think I have great eyes! This should be higher, people!
17th in “Who is crazier” It depends on how you define crazy.
19th in “Who would i rather take shopping” If you love to shop, you’ll vote me. If you hate to shop, you’ll vote the other person.
21st in “Who would I rather marry” It’s not that horrible, is it honey?!?!?
23rd in “Who is better at science” Science is my worst subject.
26th in “Who is a better public speaker” I used to be a fantastic public speaker. I’m a bit rusty at the moment. This online career doesn’t help!
26th in “Who is more trustworthy” Ouch!
27th in “Who has a better profile picture” yeah, mine could use some work.
29th in “Who is more adventurous” I’m not that adventurous, so this ranking fits the bill.
31st in “Who is more likely to do a favor for me” I’m actually great on favors, just so you know.
32nd in “Who has a better sense of humor” Poop on you people!
32nd in “Who is smarter” Ouch again, peeps! I have above average IQ!
38th in “Who is more tech-savvy” Do you not know me?!??!! What my career is!?!?!?!
Ok, Facebook rant over. Actually, most of my “friends” on Facebook either barely know me or I haven’t seen in years. If you want to friend me, click here. But if you compare me – use the above guide as a reference 
The ranking system in compare people is flawed. It rates the total number of votes as more important than the ratio of votes. This means that if you are friends with a celebrity, they will win everything because they have a lot of “friends” and hence a lot of positive votes.
As an example, I used work for a company that had a celebrity at the helm. I was hired as the tech guy to run the website. The celebrity has been voted as “more tech savvy” than me even though it’s clearly not true. He has dozens of yes votes and dozens of no votes. I have two yes votes and one no vote. One of my other friends who I would rate as more tech savvy than me has one yes vote and is ranked lower than me. This means that the person with 50% yes votes beats the person with 67% yes votes which beats the person with 100% yes votes. Crazy.
The other thing you should be aware of is that it only compares you to your friends. A lot of my friends are in the same industry as me and hence rank fairly well on the tech-savvy scale. Being in the lower end of the top 1% of the global population is still pretty good…
Of course, the reason for the flaw in the voting system is deliberate. It encourages people to add more friends and vote more often. Compare people is also easily gamed and therefore not a reliable indicator of anything, let alone what your friends actually think of you.
You can always interpret the raw data yourself. Even though I am ranked fairly badly for “more trsutworthy”, I kinda like the fact that everybody who voted chose me as the more trustworthy person. As long as the numbers of votes are statistically significant, I think the ratio of yes to no votes is the most important thing.