I am a statistician and I buy lottery tickets
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I am a statistician and I buy lottery tickets
1–10 of 108 posts
Re: I am a statistician and I buy lottery tickets
#2Nice calculation, but it doesn't contradict the 'rational' argument at all. Slightly disappointing: looking at the title and first paragraph I expected some weird statistical wizardry on why the calculation of expected values is fundamentally flawed somehow.
(Which would be surprising, given that it's an important mathematical tool in quantum mechanics (even though the formalism there is different).)
Also, why pay for the privilege of imagining a better outcome? Imagination is >free< and virtually unlimited, surely.
Re: I am a statistician and I buy lottery tickets
#3This is some really sophisticated trolling. Hats off.
/me grabs popcorn.
Re: I am a statistician and I buy lottery tickets
#4Nice calculation, but it doesn't contradict the 'rational' argument at all. Slightly disappointing: looking at the title and first paragraph I expected some weird statistical wizardry on why the calculation of expected values is fundamentally flawed somehow. (Which would be surprising, given that it's an important mathematical tool in quantum mechanics (even though the formalism there is different).) Also, why pay fo…
Exactly. I'm entertaining myself every time I release some software and imagine that I'll sell millions of copies :)
Re: I am a statistician and I buy lottery tickets
#5Nice calculation, but it doesn't contradict the 'rational' argument at all. Slightly disappointing: looking at the title and first paragraph I expected some weird statistical wizardry on why the calculation of expected values is fundamentally flawed somehow. (Which would be surprising, given that it's an important mathematical tool in quantum mechanics (even though the formalism there is different).) Also, why pay fo…
He does contradict the "rational" argument that you should only factor in money when doing your expected value calculations.
> Imagination is >freeI guess he gets more entertainment out of knowing that what he is imagining has a chance of becoming a reality.
Re: I am a statistician and I buy lottery tickets
#6Cliffs: he doesn't mind lighting money on fire because he thinks imagining winning the lottery is fun.
Re: I am a statistician and I buy lottery tickets
#7There is that Stanford math PhD that won four lotteries. http://www.forbes.com/sites/kiriblakeley/2011/07/21/meet-the...
Re: I am a statistician and I buy lottery tickets
#8Nice calculation, but it doesn't contradict the 'rational' argument at all. Slightly disappointing: looking at the title and first paragraph I expected some weird statistical wizardry on why the calculation of expected values is fundamentally flawed somehow. (Which would be surprising, given that it's an important mathematical tool in quantum mechanics (even though the formalism there is different).) Also, why pay fo…
Exactly. I'm entertaining myself every time I release some software and imagine that I'll sell millions of copies :)
Reminds me of a dilbert comic:
Re: I am a statistician and I buy lottery tickets
#9Cliffs: he doesn't mind lighting money on fire because he thinks imagining winning the lottery is fun.
He doesn't think imagining winning the lottery is fun, it actually is fun for him. He's actually entertained and is comfortable spending money for a little imaging and escapism.
What's wrong with that?
Re: I am a statistician and I buy lottery tickets
#10I had a statistics professor at college who were addicted to gaming. There were stories about him losing a lot of money, car, job and wife because of his addiction. I thought it were just a joke, you know, statistics professor addicted to lottery? Duh, I wouldn't fall for that. Until one day, to demonstrate that a specific class of combinations were too rare, he challenged a girl in the first row that if she rolled a dice x times she wouldn't get that kind of result. He was so confident that he told us he would pass us all in the test if she did. Well, she did. He did keep his word and passed us. Did I mention he was a phd?
That thought me a huge lesson about argument of authority. And about the quality of college graduates in Brazil.