Consider that everyone always complains about government “pork” and all other types of special interests (e.g. tax loopholes, bailouts). The only people who think that all special interests are good are lobbyists - the folks paid to promote special interests. So if nearly everyone thinks that special interests are bad, and we live in a [...]
I’ll admit that there is some visceral appeal to the idea of winning hundreds of millions of dollars - and not everyone will be able to resist. While the optimal strategy is not to play, you can’t win if you don’t play, so let’s determine the optimal strategy for playing.
For the typical lottery, you can [...]
Consider a game: I setup the cost, conditions of winning, and the payoff. You have a choice of whether to play or not.
Game #1: The cost to play is $1. The payoff is $10. You have a 50% chance of winning - basically a coin toss. Heads you win, tails you lose.
Analysis: This is a [...]
(originally part of an email discussion on Jealousy with my friend Josh)
Chemical Bond idea
I had an intriguing idea for an analogy - that of chemical bonds. Most chemical bonds are covalent - resulting from a sharing of electrons between two atoms. In my view, people are like atoms of different materials, and the chemical bonds [...]
(originally part of an email discussion with my friend Josh)
I agree that commitment in any relationship is important - but the terms of that commitment need not be defined by a centuries old system of supporting male primogeniture. For instance, as you said you and I are committed to one another as friends. I can [...]