Humans vs. Bayesian Filters

Interesting observation from Joel Spolsky on spam filtering:

So while everybody is worried about how spam filters might inadvertently delete the proverbial crucial email from a customer, in practice, in the presence of lots of spam, human beings are far more likely to delete a real email than a well-implemented Bayesian filter.

I think this is true, especially for non-spam messages that have spammy-looking subjects.

★ Wednesday, 20 April 2005