Lumosity's is hosting this excellent Haiku Contest. As a writer, a die-hard Lumosity fan, and a time-to-time enjoyer of haiku poetry I thought this was one not to be missed. I entered, and you can enter too if you get in before 10 November 2014.
To my mind, this haiku contest is terrifically innovative way for a neuroscience and data-driven company like Lumos Labs to engage its fan base. This is a concept I can back.
I feel so strongly, in fact, that participating is not enough! Writing my haiku was fun, but I want to know more. I've browsed the other contest entries, and read some very clever stuff from others.
To my mind, this haiku contest is terrifically innovative way for a neuroscience and data-driven company like Lumos Labs to engage its fan base. This is a concept I can back.
I feel so strongly, in fact, that participating is not enough! Writing my haiku was fun, but I want to know more. I've browsed the other contest entries, and read some very clever stuff from others.
Click here to see my haiku – If you like it, I would appreciate your vote!
So Lumosity is giving away 15 prizes, and prize winners are those with the most votes. The prizes for the top-two entries contain an Amazon Kindle (which is awesome!) as well as some phenomenal giveaways involving pre-paid service access to the full Lumosity brain training platform. As a proud lifetime Lumosity member already, I'm just in this contest the support a company I love, and to try and win a Kindle.
The concept of the Quantified Self is one dear to my heart (hence my habit of measuring every aspect of my health and lifestyle that I can), but I also like to quantify the world I'm in, and the things that happen there. As such, my brain is hungry to know the odds of winning this competition I've invested some of my time in. Since I figure out that sort of thing in text, I'll blog it here because sharing is caring.
The concept of the Quantified Self is one dear to my heart (hence my habit of measuring every aspect of my health and lifestyle that I can), but I also like to quantify the world I'm in, and the things that happen there. As such, my brain is hungry to know the odds of winning this competition I've invested some of my time in. Since I figure out that sort of thing in text, I'll blog it here because sharing is caring.
Data analysis
There are 2 Amazon Kindles to be won.
On the competition website, we see there are currently 139 entries (that's 9 pages of 15 entries, and 1 page of 4 entries).
So with that basic starting point we can determine, (if this were a random draw, which it isn't, and if it were drawn right now which it won't be), then my odds of winning a kindle would be 1 in 69.5. Pretty nice.
However, the contest has been open 2 days, and closes in 4 days. If 139 entries have been lodged in 2 days, then all up we can expect a total of 417 entries by the time the competition closes.
So at draw time, if it were a random draw (which it still isn't), my odds of winning a Kindle would be 1 in 208.5. Still quite handsome odds.
But that last variable – "highest-voted entries will win" – is a doozy. In order to win one of those two juicy Kindles, my haiku needs to be in the top-2 entries with the most votes. The question now becomes "how many votes do I need?"
On the competition website, we see there are currently 139 entries (that's 9 pages of 15 entries, and 1 page of 4 entries).
So with that basic starting point we can determine, (if this were a random draw, which it isn't, and if it were drawn right now which it won't be), then my odds of winning a kindle would be 1 in 69.5. Pretty nice.
However, the contest has been open 2 days, and closes in 4 days. If 139 entries have been lodged in 2 days, then all up we can expect a total of 417 entries by the time the competition closes.
So at draw time, if it were a random draw (which it still isn't), my odds of winning a Kindle would be 1 in 208.5. Still quite handsome odds.
But that last variable – "highest-voted entries will win" – is a doozy. In order to win one of those two juicy Kindles, my haiku needs to be in the top-2 entries with the most votes. The question now becomes "how many votes do I need?"
| Current state Returning to the competition results, and sorting them using the "Top Rated" filter, I see that currently the top 15 ranked haikus have this many votes thus far: 69 (which seems frankly suspicious given that the view count on that very haiku is only 63) 63 (view count 397) 54 (view count 279) 33 30 27 25 20 18 15 15 14 13 12 9 | Finishing state The Current state isn't too daunting. But it's only 2 days into the competition, and there are 4 to go. So by projecting proportionate increases onto that scoreboard, my leaderboard projection for finishing time is: 207 189 162 99 90 81 75 60 54 45 45 42 39 36 27 |
And voila! There's what I want to know...
I need about 208 votes within the next four days for my haiku to win a Kindle!
I see that Kindles currently retail for $85.78
So if I were to bribe you for your vote on my haiku by putting 40 cents in your pocket then I could (quite likely) get my hands on one of Lumosity's Kindles for $1.28 cheaper than simply buying one from Best Buy.
Fortunately I'm not quite that bargain-hungry. And unfortunately, my readership is not yet so huge that I can just post a link, ask a favour, and cash in. Better get back to building my blog then.
If you do enter the Lumosity Haiku Contest yourself though, link to your haiku in the comments below and I can guarantee your entry at least one read and one vote!
So if I were to bribe you for your vote on my haiku by putting 40 cents in your pocket then I could (quite likely) get my hands on one of Lumosity's Kindles for $1.28 cheaper than simply buying one from Best Buy.
Fortunately I'm not quite that bargain-hungry. And unfortunately, my readership is not yet so huge that I can just post a link, ask a favour, and cash in. Better get back to building my blog then.
If you do enter the Lumosity Haiku Contest yourself though, link to your haiku in the comments below and I can guarantee your entry at least one read and one vote!
RSS Feed
