Percentage Usage Debates

Discussions focus on the correct interpretation, calculation, and presentation of percentages versus absolute values or percentage points, often critiquing misleading uses in articles like '6300% increase' vs. relative changes.

📉 Falling 0.3x Other
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Keywords

e.g percentage fold percentages increase 60 20 answers magnitude order magnitude points

Sample Comments

beambot Apr 11, 2014 View on HN

A percentage!? That doesn't even come close. Perhaps a multiple is more fitting.

EasyMark Jan 31, 2024 View on HN

do you recall percentages? like 10% higher or 5x higher?

aristofun May 7, 2021 View on HN

I meant big in percentage, not in cash value

dekhn Nov 7, 2024 View on HN

obviously percentage, not absolute amount.

m3kw9 May 21, 2024 View on HN

Choose between “now 1.5%” or “50% increase”

siglesias Mar 5, 2020 View on HN

that's not how percentages work

jonknee Oct 2, 2018 View on HN

It's not absurd precision, it's just what happens when you multiply something by a percentage.

harlanlewis May 5, 2016 View on HN

Others might read that as 600% change, not 1.5%.

hnbad Jan 26, 2024 View on HN

Feels like the opposite to me. "6,300%" looks weird as we're expecting to see percentages used for numbers much smaller than that. "63 times more" would prompt a visceral reaction. "6,300%" at first looks like a typo.

c54 Dec 4, 2022 View on HN

Problem is it wouldn’t be 10% more, it’d be 100% more