06Book 03 · Chapter 06 of 07· 5 min · Why the scores get shrunk
Longer lists, louder matches
A longer list is a more detailed sketch. Detailed sketches, compared, shout. Shrinking the shout keeps several words in the mix instead of one word swallowing 100%.
A short list of numbers is a rough sketch of a word. A long list is a detailed one. Compare two detailed sketches and the match score can be enormous — a shout instead of a sentence.
Turn a shout into percents and one word takes almost 100%. Neighbors get crumbs. Shrinking the scores — dividing by a number that grows with the list length — brings the leader back down so other words still share the mix. Canberra can lead. Sydney can still have a slice. That is the point.
This is a design choice inside , not a metaphor and not . comes later, when Book 2’s wheel is already built.
Without shrinking
Canberra99%
Sydney1%
Hobart0%
With shrinking
Canberra81%
Sydney14%
Hobart5%
At a long detailed sketch, the left column can give Canberra almost the whole 100%. The right column still lets the neighbors share. Same matches. Different shrink.
Quiz
6 questions
Before moving forward, test your knowledge of what you’ve just learned!
1.A longer list of numbers is:
2.Huge raw matches tend to:
3.Shrinking the scores:
4.This shrinking happens:
5.If shrinking is skipped on a long list:
6.In the demo, the right-hand column (with shrinking) is there to show:
0 of 6 answered
6 / 7