6 ms·

I 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 addict

I 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.

shrikant 14y ago
Interesting you should say that. Richard Feynman on education in Brazil: http://v.cx/2010/04/feynman-brazil-education http://v.cx/2010/04/feynman-brazil-education ..and the associated HN discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2483976 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2483976
- jere 14y ago
  I loved Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman! But to be fair, it was written nearly 30 years ago. I would hope things have gotten better since then.
  - raverbashing 14y ago
    Not really, no
  - dsego 14y ago
    Wow, I had never read this piece before, but it exactly describes the croatian school system. Kids & students just memorising information. Even the teachers don't explain what something means, because they also went through school memorising stuff.
  - outworlder 14y ago
    Not really, at least, not consistently. "Thus, it must be possible for some people to work their way through the system, bad as it is." It is possible. When my young brother asked me about how electrical generators worked (which is, by itself, an unusual question), I had an idea. I hooked up a DC motor to a LED and started cranking it, and he could see the LED lighting up, however faintly. Only then I tried to explain roughly how it worked - that little demonstration kept him interested. And he could explain it later, on his own words. He didn't grow up to be a scientist, but he thinks like one. I like to think that those little 'scientific' experiments of our youth had something to do with it.
anonymouz 14y ago
Unfortunately an addiction can rarely be battled by simple rationality. So even if he can calculate his chances of winning perfectly well, and theoretically understand that it is a poor use of his money, he may still have to give in to his addiction.
- saraid216 14y ago
  I doubt that his students understood that gambling is something you could be addicted to in the first place.

shrikant 14y ago

Interesting you should say that. Richard Feynman on education in Brazil: http://v.cx/2010/04/feynman-brazil-education http://v.cx/2010/04/feynman-brazil-education ..and the associated HN discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2483976 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2483976

jere 14y ago
I loved Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman! But to be fair, it was written nearly 30 years ago. I would hope things have gotten better since then.
- raverbashing 14y ago
  Not really, no
- dsego 14y ago
  Wow, I had never read this piece before, but it exactly describes the croatian school system. Kids & students just memorising information. Even the teachers don't explain what something means, because they also went through school memorising stuff.
- outworlder 14y ago
  Not really, at least, not consistently. "Thus, it must be possible for some people to work their way through the system, bad as it is." It is possible. When my young brother asked me about how electrical generators worked (which is, by itself, an unusual question), I had an idea. I hooked up a DC motor to a LED and started cranking it, and he could see the LED lighting up, however faintly. Only then I tried to explain roughly how it worked - that little demonstration kept him interested. And he could explain it later, on his own words. He didn't grow up to be a scientist, but he thinks like one. I like to think that those little 'scientific' experiments of our youth had something to do with it.

anonymouz 14y ago

Unfortunately an addiction can rarely be battled by simple rationality. So even if he can calculate his chances of winning perfectly well, and theoretically understand that it is a poor use of his money, he may still have to give in to his addiction.

saraid216 14y ago
I doubt that his students understood that gambling is something you could be addicted to in the first place.