I direct your attention to a blog entry in today's NY Times that somewhat follows up the entry made by Daniel Gilbert (see the TiPS post "The Useless Advice That Psychologists Give") but now involves an interview with physicist and occasional "McGyver" screen writer Leonard Mlodinow (author of "The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Out Lives"). He points out the role of coincidence, the inevitability of even rare events, and perhaps some insights such as the following:
|I was once on a plane that experienced so much turbulence that |when I looked out the window, the wings seemed to flap up and |down like a bird's. I noticed, also, that the woman in the window |seat next to me looked pale and terrified. Personally, I took comfort |in knowing how many miles planes fly through heavy turbulence |without any problems at all. So I explained to the woman how planes |were designed to withstand such conditions, and told her the slim odds |of anything bad happening. When I finished, she turned away and |reached for the barf bag. | |Some people take solace in an understanding of their environment, |others don't. For me, an understanding of the role played by chance |has taught me that one important factor in success is under our control: |the number of at-bats, the number of chances taken, the number of |opportunities seized. As someone who has taken risks in life I find it |a comfort to know that even a coin weighted toward failure will sometimes | land on success. Or, as I.B.M. pioneer Thomas Watson said, "If you want |to succeed, double your failure rate." For more, see: http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/what-are-the-odds/ -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] P.S. |Busy, busy, busy is what a Bokononist whispers "whenever [he] thinks |about how complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is." http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/personal/bokonon.html --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
