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A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery

thehustle.co

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Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery

#81

When I was in my final year of high school, Coca-cola was giving away an iPod Nano to lucky winners who entered codes from plastic bottle caps or glass bottle labels. An iPod was given away once per day, except Monday, when they were given out once per hour. I was competing against the rest of Switzerland. Each code had to be entered on a website, earning 0, 5, 10, 20 or 50 points. You could then choose how many poin…

Once, when I was in the 5th grade, there was a jelly-bean counting contest at the local library. The jellybeans were in a jar that was roughly cylindrical.

I counted the rough radius of the jar in 1-dimensional linear_jellybean units, as well as the height of the bean-filled part. Using the formula for the volume of the cylinder, I guessed the volume, in linear_jellybean^3 units. Through the sheer coincidence that a jellybean's volume is roughly 1 linear_jellybean^3, I got within 25 or so jellybeans of the correct count, winning the grand prize.

I walked away with a bunch of books, and the jar of jellybeans. I'm glad, that unlike in the story presented by this article, the CIA and the FBI did not get involved in the act, since I used method and cunning as opposed to dumb luck. Maybe it was just a matter of the dollar value at stake.

This is the only time in my entire life that I had to use the geometrical formula for volume of anything for a practical purpose.

As I type this I realize that each of those jellybeans was manhandled by someone during the counting process. I wonder if they used gloves.

Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of work are you looking for? Have you tried remote work?

These days I'll take anything short-term, even remote. For a long-term career I have the education & work experience prerequisites for New Zealand's Skilled Migrant Category, Australia's 186, and Canada's Express Entry. In the past, I did two remote contracts (Pixelgarde and AnswerTo), but in both cases the employer reached out to me first. I'm not really sure how to find jobs. My résumé is here: http://peterburk.fre…

These people are going easy on you. This resume is abysmal and makes you seem unhinged. Take every flag, symbol, or non-business related piece of information off of it. Don't advertise languages unless you can communicate in them at a professional level. Include your accomplishments at each job. When looking at your resume, a potential employer needs to see immediately why you would be valuable to their organization.

Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of work are you looking for? Have you tried remote work?

These days I'll take anything short-term, even remote. For a long-term career I have the education & work experience prerequisites for New Zealand's Skilled Migrant Category, Australia's 186, and Canada's Express Entry. In the past, I did two remote contracts (Pixelgarde and AnswerTo), but in both cases the employer reached out to me first. I'm not really sure how to find jobs. My résumé is here: http://peterburk.fre…

There are dozens of sites that advertise remote jobs (google). Weworkremotely is one example.. most of the recruiters will reply within a week atleast. You definitely need to narrow down your skills and/or presentation of it(cv). Just go through any public cv and just copy it.. learning web development might give higher chance of securing a job but is not necessary.. wish you good luck!

Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery

#84
post #6
post #3

Seems kind of silly that they hyped it up as some kind of mathematical savant genius story, when it seems like they just took a simple lottery system (x numbers give y combinations, which sell for $1 per combination, for a total payout of >$3y) where the logistics operation was the more impressive aspect.

From the linked article [1](Romanian language) it sounds like he had claimed to have a special mathematical method to convince his early investors in Romania but it was entirely made up. He was basically scamming them and had no idea if they would actually win. [1] http://www.bursa.ro/industria-de-gambling-iulie-1994-primul-...

> Meanwhile, Mandel paid himself ... $1.7m, and ... $14m. After overhead fees ($5.5m for the tickets, and $500k in expenses), he was left with a princely sum.

> Records show that he funneled this cash into the Pacific Basin Fund, a Hong Kong-based account managed by his brother-in-law. “What we calculated to be the reality has changed,” he wrote in a 1994 letter to investors. “It may not seem such a hot investment now.” After that, his investor updates went cold.

Proof that it was a scam all along.

Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who in their right mind would buy 100 tickets chosen at random _with replacement_ in your scenario?

100 people

Exactly. In fact in practice they do an even worse than random job since many people pick non-random numbers like birthdates or the number of kids they have. Any uniform purchasing strategy would probably have better EV from not buying any of the most popular combinations.

Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery

#86

When I was in my final year of high school, Coca-cola was giving away an iPod Nano to lucky winners who entered codes from plastic bottle caps or glass bottle labels. An iPod was given away once per day, except Monday, when they were given out once per hour. I was competing against the rest of Switzerland. Each code had to be entered on a website, earning 0, 5, 10, 20 or 50 points. You could then choose how many poin…

Your whole post but especially the last paragraph prompts me to inform there exists a splendid movie that shall definitely bring a smile on your face: it's a french movie called "La Couperette" or "The Axe" is the English title. It's about a highly qualified person who loses his job and decides to "beat" the competition.

===

There are many theories of economy (capitalism, socialism, communism, ...) but one of them is hardly known and heavily censored since the 19th century. It is starting (in a much milder form) to resurface as the concept of "bullshit jobs". The old theory is roughly the following:

1) From the perspective of governments, as soon as productivity is sufficient to support survival (i.e. there is no longer a material lack of basic necessities), the next threat to government is disobedience. So the government supports in various ways the pacification or neutralization of disobedience. This can happen in various ways: by sorting pupils in all levels of school (elementary, high school and up) not just by skill (which ensures survival) but also by attitude (so that the disobedient don't gain too much intellect, and equivalently so that the resultant intellectuals are significantly obedient). Most of us with higher levels of education have vague memories of kids getting expelled from school due to disobedience, they all slowly got concentrated in less educational schools (for the disobedient). It is hard to emphasize we didn't realize how ridiculously obedient we were because our yardstick of obedience were other highly obedient pupils who had not yet been filtered away. Another way is welfare even if there is plenty of material wealth (for survival) if it promotes obedience. When or how does welfare promote societal stability? That depends on the individual: a disobedient person with free time and resources is relatively more dangerous than an obedient person with free time and resources.

2) From the perspective of employers, employees should be replacable, if they aren't replacable as if they were simple cogs and gears in a machine, survival would hinge on these select individuals. Regarding obedience, from a managerial bossing around perspective there is much more satisfaction from managing a disobedient person than an obedient person (the former is an achievement, while the latter is a given). People do what they like to do, so when a manager chooses to spend his time micromanaging specifically over a disobedient person, he is probably enjoying it.

3) From the perspective of the employee: the goal of jobs is first and foremost survival, but once survival is satisfied, individual goals starts kicking in, perhaps ideology, perhaps greed.

===

So the effective modus operandi of the total system is: neutralize or pacify rebellion by

1) minimizing the intellect and skills of the disobedient and maximizing the skills and intellect of the obedient during education, while

2) prioritizing jobs to some unavoidable fraction of the skilled intellectuals that turn disobedient, in order to keep them busy with work. If a person is murdered, and a number of people are suspected, the unemloyed person falls under the highest suspicion.

Consider obedient person O and disobedient person D of the same level of skill, and a free job position at that level of skill, then the system has 2 options: put O on the job while D has free time, or put D on the job while O has free time. What would you choose if you were the system, trying to ensure stability post scarcity?

The "bullshit jobs" aren't bullshit jobs, at least not from the perspective of the status quo: it's just keeping people who are assessed as disobedient busy.

The last people to recognize this emergent behaviour are typically the most obedient people (the moment they realize they slowly become more and more disobedient, a process the already disobedient experienced during their education). Why are so many people reporting "aholes" at work? Because there actually are people acting as disobedient "aholes" at work. Some of this acting may be genuine, some of it is purely feigned to keep the job. It is unknown what percentage of disobedience is feigned disobedience to keep the job, or genuine disobedience. Any genuinely obedient person who eventually understood this working principle in society, and hence feigned disobedience in order to be assigned a job paying better than welfare, is afraid to speak out about it: the moment he describes this modus operandi, he is effectively revealing he isn't in fact disobedient, so he can be safely put back on welfare and make place at work for the neutralization by employment of a genuine disobedient person.

===

In short, you may want to start signalling your dissatisfaction with society in order to be classified as slightly more dis-allegiant and thus a good candidate for being kept busy:

perhaps in subtle ways like replying the question "Why were you unemployed between ..." with "Yes, there is an attitude problem between me and the rest of the world, but the problem is not on my side"

perhaps in more obvious ways, like starting a blog and posting semi-extreme perspectives on society, with lots of normative and prescriptive language.

Anyway good luck, and don't forget to watch "La Couperette", it is genious!

Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery

#87

When I was in my final year of high school, Coca-cola was giving away an iPod Nano to lucky winners who entered codes from plastic bottle caps or glass bottle labels. An iPod was given away once per day, except Monday, when they were given out once per hour. I was competing against the rest of Switzerland. Each code had to be entered on a website, earning 0, 5, 10, 20 or 50 points. You could then choose how many poin…

Your whole post but especially the last paragraph prompts me to inform there exists a splendid movie that shall definitely bring a smile on your face: it's a french movie called "La Couperette" or "The Axe" is the English title. It's about a highly qualified person who loses his job and decides to "beat" the competition. === There are many theories of economy (capitalism, socialism, communism, ...) but one of them is…

Thank you for the plot summary! It's given me a lot to think about. The name of the film is actually "Le Couperet" if I'm not mistaken.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Axe_(film)

Your comment may be even more fitting to my Ask HN about a fake résumé generator project. You're correct about my feelings of disobedience.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17934916

Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your whole post but especially the last paragraph prompts me to inform there exists a splendid movie that shall definitely bring a smile on your face: it's a french movie called "La Couperette" or "The Axe" is the English title. It's about a highly qualified person who loses his job and decides to "beat" the competition. === There are many theories of economy (capitalism, socialism, communism, ...) but one of them is…

Thank you for the plot summary! It's given me a lot to think about. The name of the film is actually "Le Couperet" if I'm not mistaken. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Axe_(film) Your comment may be even more fitting to my Ask HN about a fake résumé generator project. You're correct about my feelings of disobedience. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17934916

Yes that is the correct title.

The fake résumé generator idea is brilliant. But I would beta-test this under a false email unrelated to your name, and in a slightly different target field.

I would suspect they typically check the last employer, or the one before to verify the reason of termination? Not sure though.

If the theory of allegiance holds any truth, it's because you acted too much like a person who is too good for this world.

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