Paul
Posts:
258
Registered:
7/12/10
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Re: probability question about the dice game
Posted:
Feb 18, 2013 4:15 AM
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On Sunday, February 17, 2013 5:15:26 PM UTC, David C. Ullrich wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 10:30:41 -0800 (PST), pepstein5@gmail.com wrote:
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> >On Saturday, February 16, 2013 3:00:44 PM UTC, David C. Ullrich wrote:
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> >> On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 05:45:37 -0800 (PST), pepstein5@gmail.com wrote:
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> >> >Staying with the theme of odds terminology, but moving away from the argument,
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> >> Giggle. Yes, now would be exactly the right time to "move away from
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> >> the argument".
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> >> Guffaw.
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> >I don't find it that hilarious. Obviously, I've been shown to be wrong about what standard usage is.
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> Until this last post it wasn't obvious that it was clear to _you_.
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> And it may not have been clear to other readers.
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> What quasi said. When you say "Ullrich is wrong" four or five times,
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> then you find that I was right all along, you're supposed to
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> acknowledge that fact.
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> For two reasons: (i) to set the record straight for the benefit
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> of readers who might otherwise think you were right all along,
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> (ii) as a matter of common courtesy.
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> For future reference, saying something like "this seems wrong to me",
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> or "I don't think so", would be less embarassing in case it turned out
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> you were wrong.
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> Also for future reference, you were insisting that what I was saying
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> was not standard usage. I would never insist that someone else's
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> usage was wrong without checking somewhere first! Just because
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> I know saying X is correct it doesn't follow that saying Y is wrong.
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> Checking it out. For most of this thread I honestly didn't
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> follow exactly what error you were claiming I was making.
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> As soon as that became clear to me I looked it up. Why?
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> Because I was aware that I _might_ be wrong!
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> Looking it up was very very easy. You could have done the same.
I basically agree with the above (about 99.9% agreement). Earlier, I started a thread about "surprise" in mathematics. I will now say something about another emotion -- "embarrassment". On the subject of my own emotions, I can give two scenarios. Scenario A: I say "I think A is wrong about..." and A is proved right. Scenario B: I say "A is wrong about..." and A is proved right I would actually find the degree of embarrassment in both scenarios to be equivalent. I would not experience more embarrassment in scenario B although I agree that scenario A is a preferable style of discourse.
Paul Epstein
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